


Dry Land

by JackieWepps



Series: Dry Land [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: Cliche, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-05-30 03:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 25,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6406666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieWepps/pseuds/JackieWepps
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't exactly what you would call Makoto's lucky day when Haruka fell down the stairs and broke his wrist. Now he is facing an entire month with only one task: keep Haruka away from water, which we all know is much easier said than done. </p><p>Vague hints of both Rin/Haru and Makoto/Haru if you want to see it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Monday - August 18th

It was a regular day at Iwatobi High. Tachibana Makoto and Nanase Haruka were walking down the hallway in the direction of the roof. Makoto was really excited to tell something and Haruka could tell that from the expression on his friend’s face.

Makoto took a deep breath to calm himself before speaking.

“So… My family are gonna go camping in two weeks. We’re going to camp by a lake and my parents say that you can come along if you want,” Makoto smiled already knowing the answer. He’d also told his parents that he most likely wouldn’t have to ask.

Haruka nodded.  

They turned a corner and walked up a set of stairs. Makoto smiled. The nod was as good as an “I’d love to come along” when it came from Haruka.

“I’ll tell them that then. Though we’re gonna leave on Friday morning so we’ll miss school that day,” Makoto said.

They were half way up the stairs when Nagisa came running towards them from the top of the stairs. “Haru-chan! Mako-chan!” he yelled. His face was shining so brightly with happiness it would put the sun to shame. He ran down towards Makoto and Haruka and hit Haruka full force causing both of them to fall down the stairs.

“Haru! Nagisa!” Makoto yelled as he turned to see his two friends at the bottom of the stairs.

“Nagisa-kun!” Rei came running to the top of the stairs. When he saw Haruka and Nagisa lying at the bottom of the stairs, it didn’t take him long to figure out what had happened and both he and Makoto rushed down to the two boys on the floor.

Haruka had landed on the floor with Nagisa on top of him. He had a wrist stuck under him between the floor and his body. Nagisa had his head resting on the older boy’s chest but now he sat up, his magenta eyes looked terrified at Haruka.

“Haru-chan, are you okay?” he asked looking at his friend as he sat up and got off of Haruka.

“Lay off with the –chan already,” was the comment before Haruka too got up.

“Haru?” Makoto looked concerned at his friend. “Are you okay?”

Haruka nodded, letting that be enough to answer Makoto’s question.

Rei was already in the process of inspecting Nagisa for anything that could’ve happened to his body during the fall. He was grateful when he found the boy to be unharmed.

Makoto also made an attempt to check Haruka for anything that could have happened, but before he could get very far with that, the other pulled away.

“I’m fine,” Haruka sighed.

“If you say so,” Makoto said, though, for a change, he wasn’t sure he really believed his friend.

* * *

 

“You better take notes to what I’m saying,” the teacher said causing everyone in class to grab a pen and paper. Their teacher said some important things and everyone took notes.

Makoto was looking at Haruka through the corner of his eye. To him it appeared that the other had some difficulties writing though it wasn’t easy to tell. The other’s face was expressionless; the only way to see it was the way he held his right wrist.

As the afternoon went by, the signs of something being wrong with Haruka got more and more obvious. Makoto got more worried for each sign the other dropped and when school finally finished he’d made up his mind.

“We should have you checked out at the hospital,” he told Haruka as they left the building on their way to the pool for swimming.

“I’m fine,” Haruka said once again. The phrase had started to annoy Makoto to no end because it was obvious to everyone that Haruka was NOT fine.

“Let’s see how practice goes but I can’t help but worry that something’s wrong,” he sighed as they made it to the pool.

* * *

 

Haruka had only been in the water for half a minute or so when Rei walked up to Makoto with a worried look on his face as he would eye Haruka every other moment.

“What’s wrong with Haruka-senpai?” Rei asked. “His style in swimming is different than usual.”

Makoto nodded. “I don’t know, but I’ve noticed it too,” he answered while looking out at his friend in the pool.

“Do you think it has something to do with the fall he and Nagisa-kun took down the stairs earlier?” Rei asked as Nagisa also joined the two.

“I’m afraid so.”

“Someone should stop Haru-chan,” Nagisa said. “He’s in pain.”

Makoto hadn’t noticed until Nagisa pointed it out to them, but the younger boy was right. The pain was obvious on Haruka’s face at this point.

“Haru!” he called out to the other. “Get out. We’re going to the hospital.”

Makoto didn’t notice this but he had a strict tone to his voice that was unusual for him to have, and this caused Haruka to get out of the water just at that point instead of waiting until he had finished swimming or thought they’d been waiting long enough.

Haruka got out of the water and got himself dressed, and only five minutes after Makoto had told him to get out of the water, he was ready to go.

Makoto apologized to the others for not being able to stay and practice with them to which they answered that it was fine and then he and Haruka left to the hospital.

The walk to the hospital only took about twenty minutes and since there was nobody waiting to be checked out when they got there, they got to see a doctor within ten more minutes. Makoto was glad it went so fast because over the afternoon he had almost grown worried sick about his best friend.

The doctor scanned Haruka’s wrist which Haruka had told hurt a bit and they didn’t have to wait long for a result to come from the scanning.

“It’s not too bad,” the doctor said. “It’s just a broken wrist.”

Even if it was ‘not too bad’ as the doctor so friendly put it, Makoto was still worried about his friend, and the news didn’t help too much.

“What does that mean?” Makoto asked when Haruka didn’t say a word.

“I’d like to put your wrist in a cast, Nanase-kun.” The doctor looked at Haruka who nodded, knowing he didn’t really have much of a choice despite the doctor made it sound that way.

“You don’t have to worry,” Haruka said, causing Makoto to look at him.

“I can’t help it,” Makoto smiled.

“It could’ve been worse,” the doctor said. “The bone has only cracked. You only need to wear this for about a month from now on.”

“Doctor?” Makoto looked at the doctor. “Is there anything we need to remember due to the cast?”

The doctor nodded. “Even if the cast is strong you shouldn’t use your wrist too much, strain it,” he said. “But most importantly; the cast must not get wet, that means no contact with water.”

Both boys looked terrified at the doctor but especially Haruka. He couldn’t believe he could not have contact with water for a month. It was so much it was unbearable.

“So… can he still take a bath and such?” Makoto asked.

“That’s permitted.” The doctor smiled kindly at the teen. “But he has to make sure the cast doesn’t get into the water.”

Even if it was just a broken wrist it seemed to be trouble enough for Makoto. In a school with a pool nearby, with Haruka’s habit of soaking in the bathtub and with the camp by the lake coming up then what was he supposed to do?


	2. Tuesday - August 19th

Makoto had been sleeping over at Haruka’s place that night to make sure Haruka would not get the cast wet while soaking in the bathtub. He was still worried about his friend so much that it was difficult for him to let Haruka out of his sight.

This morning when he woke up, he found Haruka’s bed to be empty. He already knew where to look for the other male and went directly to the bathroom and walked in.

“I knew I’d find you here,” Makoto smiled and scanned over Haruka’s body that was already resting in the bathtub. The broken wrist in cast was hanging over the side of it, though Haruka picked just that moment to move his wrist towards the surface of the water. Makoto realized just in time to reach out and grab Haruka’s wrist.

“No Haru,” Makoto said. “You can’t!” He pulled the wrist in cast up above Haruka’s head causing him to look up.

“I… I want you to get out, Haru,” Makoto said hesitantly.

Haruka looked up at Makoto in surprise. It was the first time Makoto had told him to get out of the water, then again it was the first time he had a broken bone. Haruka got out of the bathtub and revealed that he as usual was wearing his swimsuit.

“Thanks…” Makoto said as Haruka dried himself off and went to make breakfast as usual; mackerel. Makoto didn’t really feel like he was up for the fish for breakfast so he made himself at home and had himself a piece of bread instead.

* * *

 

It all went perfect at school. Haruka still had a bit of difficulty holding a pen. Makoto kept an eye on his best friend as well as he could because he was still worried about him.

At lunch the two met up with Rei, Nagisa and Gou on the roof to have lunch all three of them together.

“So, was something wrong, Haruka-senpai?” Rei asked.

“His wrist has been broken,” Makoto answered before Haruka got to say a word. “So He has it in cast for a month.”

“So, Haru-chan can’t swim with us?” Nagisa asked concerned while looking from Haruka’s face to the cast around his wrist.

“Nagisa-kun, it’s your fault you know,” Rei commented.

Nagisa got a guilty look on his face and didn’t say another word about Haruka’s broken wrist after that. Nobody else knew what to say either because all of them knew that Rei was right. As much as all of them wanted to comfort the younger by saying “it was an accident”, all of them knew that if it hadn’t been for Nagisa, the accident would never have happened.

“So, what are we gonna do about joined practice this Saturday?” Gou asked.

“Aren’t you the manager?” Haruka asked.

Gou looked away. He was right. She was supposed to find out what to do. But before she could get any further, another problem occurred.

“Hey, Hikari-chan!” a girl yelled to her friend. “Has that pool always been there?”

Haruka’s head snapped up and he looked in the direction of the two girls before standing up and running down from the roof.

 _Why did they just HAVE to say Pool?_ Makoto thought as he got up to chase after Haruka and stop him before he ended up in the pool and with the need of going to the hospital again to get new cast on his wrist.

The others chased after Makoto who was still chasing after Haruka. The black haired teen was always within sight but Makoto was never able to grab a hold of him and stop him until they made it to the pool and Haruka was standing on the spring-board ready to jump.

“Haru!” Makoto yelled as he grabbed Haruka’s left arm. “No don’t do it.” He shook his head when Haruka looked to prove his point.

Haruka sent Makoto an upset look before stepping down and getting himself dressed again. Makoto could finally let out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. He’d managed to stop Haruka in time.

“I honestly think it’s better if Haruka is not practicing with us,” he said looking at Gou while keeping an eye on his friend to make sure he wouldn’t get any good ideas and try to jump back into the pool.

Gou nodded. “The issue about that would be that someone might have to take the time to keep an eye on him,” she said.

Makoto sighed. “I’ll do it.”

“But then we’re only half a swim-team,” Rei said.

“I know!” Nagisa yelled in excitement. “We could all take turns watching out for Haru-chan.”

“I don’t need it,” Haruka said so lowly that they could barely hear it.

“I’m sorry, Haru,” Makoto said looking at his best friend. “But I don’t trust you enough for that under the circumstances.”

Haruka didn’t comment on that. He knew that already and it wasn’t without reason Makoto didn’t trust him. He had already tested the other’s trust enough for the day and maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to push his luck too far.

* * *

 

Makoto had decided to sleep at Haruka’s place as much as possible. He really couldn’t trust Haruka when it came to staying away from water. He was now lying in bed next to Haruka in the boy’s room. The best thing about this whole concept was that even though Haruka was unwilling to have someone keep an eye on him, he could still see that it was needed.

Makoto listened to Haruka’s deep breathing as the other slept while he couldn’t seem to fall asleep at all. He was thinking about the times when he wouldn’t be able to watch out for Haruka, during joined practice this weekend and while he was out camping in the following one. Makoto simply didn’t know what to do.

All things aside it had been going just fine during their own practice. He had been sitting still with Gou and whoever wasn’t in the water at the moment.

Makoto knew it was difficult for Haruka to stay out of the water and that’s why he was actually really proud of him for not even moving to try and get in the water. He didn’t even complain, though that would also have been much out of character for him.

Nothing like this had ever happened to Haruka before, not even when they were kids had Haruka been forced to stay out of the water.

Speaking of when they were kids… Makoto actually had a clue of who to ask to look after Haruka while he was out camping. Because the camping was by a lake, Haruka couldn’t come along of course and Makoto wouldn’t risk that Haruka strained his wrist too much so it was better for him to stay home. And the one to look after him would be just perfect… that is if he wanted to.

 _I should ask him now…_ Makoto thought _but do I have his phone number? Yeah I think I do._

Makoto found his phone and looked through his contacts. He was right. He did have the phone number he was looking for. He quickly typed a text to the someone he was thinking about.


	3. Wednesday - August 20th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so sorry! but I accidentally deleted the rest of the story and can't recall it, so I won't be able to complete it.   
> I am so so so so sorry, here is the last chapter I managed to get out here.

Today started the same way as the day before had. Makoto woke up to find Haruka’s bed empty and to no surprise found him in the bathtub where he was soaking as usual. Haruka once again was about to put his arm in the water and once again Makoto managed to stop him just in time.

“You’re much more protective than usual,” Haruka said as he pulled his wrist out of Makoto’s grip… or tried to. Makoto was holding on tight and when Haruka pulled it started hurting so badly he didn’t want to pull any harder.

Makoto blinked confused. “I am?” he asked.

Haruka only nodded to this. “What could happen if the cast got wet?” he asked.

“You’d need to go back at the hospital to get a new one,” was the answer and Haruka just sighed to that and got out of the bathtub even if he would’ve loved to stay in there much longer if he could. “We’re a bit late Haru,” Makoto said as he went out the bathroom.

Haruka went and dried himself before getting dressed and going downstairs to make breakfast. Again this was no different than the day before and even what Makoto decided to have for breakfast was the same. To both of the boys it slightly felt like a deja vu.

They made it in time for school even if they didn’t hurry that much to get there, and the day just kept on looking like the day before

* * *

 

“I had an idea for the weekend!” Nagisa was smiling as he said this at the lunch-break. “We could have a sleepover from Friday to Saturday!”

“That sounds great,” Makoto approved the idea. “But who would be holding it?”

“Haru-chan of course!” Nagisa exclaimed like it was as natural as breathing. It did seem that way too, to everyone but said Haru-chan. “Since you’re already staying there it would only be me, Rei-chan and Gou-chan who would be taking up more space.”

“It does seem like a good idea,” Rei commented while studying Haruka’s and Makoto’s faces.

“Yeah, it’s a really great idea Nagisa,” Makoto looked at the boy who was too busy discussing weather it was Gou or Kou with said girl and as usual he won the argument by saying ‘Kou-chan’ causing the girl to get confused.

Then the bell went off and all of them went back to have the afternoon classes. Again it was just another repeat of the day before, with the teacher talking and the class taking notes. Then the school-day ended and the members of Iwatobi Swim Club went to the pool and had yet another repeat of yesterday’s events.

* * *

 

“Okay!” Gou called out half way through training. “Let’s see who of you three is the fastest just for the fun!” Rei and Nagisa lined up by the pool and Makoto got up from the bench next to Haruka.

“Please stay, Haru,” Makoto begged.

Haruka just nodded in respond. He would try his best to behave and control his addiction to the water though he knew it would be difficult to restrain himself with nobody to watch out for him. It shocked the teen to realize how much he had come to rely on Makoto stopping him from getting the cast wet.

“Thanks,” Makoto smiled before hurrying up to join the others.

The three jumped into the water while Haruka could just sit and wish he was able to do the same. As the current situation was, all the water he got to jump into was the water in his bathtub and he didn’t get to stay there for long thanks to a certain overprotective someone.

Haruka felt the bench vibrate under him and realized that Makoto had left his phone next to him and had got a text message. He knew he wasn’t supposed to but he got really curious and decided to open and read the text that Makoto had received.

 

_Makoto:_

_Hey Rin. Could I ask you to do me a favor?_

_Rin:_

_What kind of favor?_

_Makoto:_

_Haru has broken his wrist and needs to stay out of the water and I’m gonna go camping with my family next weekend so I’d hear if you could make sure he stays out of the water._

Makoto had asked Rin to keep an eye on him? He couldn’t believe this and then even without saying a word!

All these messages were from last night and Rin had just send his answer to Makoto’s last one.

 

_Rin:_

_We have joined practice this Saturday. We can talk about it then_

That was it! Haruka sensed the feeling of being insulted rising inside of him. He was a teenager, on his third year of high school, yet here his two best friends were talking about who should babysit him. It wasn’t like it was without a reason but Haruka still felt like they were treating him like a child.

“Haru?” Makoto walked up to Haruka and their eyes met.

“You got a message,” was all Haruka said before handing the annoying device to Makoto who quickly read the message and nodded to himself before sitting down next to Haruka.

* * *

 

After practice, Makoto and Haruka walked home together as usual. Again it all seemed so similar to the day before and for some reason it had started to annoy Haruka to no end. If there’d been any differences from the day before, it was only for the worse. Speaking of worse, he needed to confront Makoto.

“Why did you ask Rin about that? I thought I’d agreed to come along,” Haruka said.

Makoto looked up at him and smiled. He had already figured out that Haruka had been reading through the messages and had just been waiting for the moment when he would ask about them.

“You did,” Makoto nodded. “But the circumstances has changed since then and I’m not sure it’s vise to let you come along. I asked Rin because I don’t want to leave you all to yourself and I figured you’d rather spend a weekend with him. You won’t be able to stand Nagisa, Rei most likely won’t be able to stand you for that long and I won’t expect it from Gou to take care of this problem,” Makoto explained himself still smiling.

Haruka nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”

Makoto’s smile faded. He hadn’t thought about talking to Haruka about it but now that the other mentioned it, it would’ve been the best idea to do so first. Even if he wasn’t about to give Haruka a choice in the matter, it would probably have been better to tell him first. If someone was about to arrange something that concerned Makoto, he would also like to know about it first.

“I’m sorry, Haru,” Makoto said. “You’re right, I should’ve told you about it before arranging it.”

Haruka nodded, accepting the apology and the thing was soon forgotten as the day continued the same way the other had.

* * *

 

“Haru?” Makoto asked as they were both lying in bed.

“What?” Haruka turned to look at Makoto, wondering what the other was gonna say.

“Could we have something other than mackerel for dinner tomorrow?” Makoto requested. He’d already gotten tired of having the same meal two nights in a row.

“Sure,” Haruka answered.

“Thanks.” Makoto smiled at his friend, relieved that Haruka was willing to make a change like that. “Goodnight Haru,” He said before closing his eyes.

“Goodnight Makoto,” Haruka said also closing his eyes as they both fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah... well no, the story isn't deleted, it's just a plain, old, boring April fool. Truth is, even if I'd managed to delete the story, it is still published somewhere else and I could just download it from there.   
> I know I suck at jokes like this. I tend to get fooled by everyone who tells me a lie that makes sense but I'm never able to fool anyone. I just find it fun to try. I know... I really am an irritating person who can only tell lame jokes. The only way for me to be a little humorous is through writing... At least that's something.   
> I'll shut up now. I'm just blabbering. I'll stop.   
> Just so we are clear, in case I managed to fool someone, there will be another update tomorrow, don't worry, I'll see you then. 
> 
> Jackie


	4. Friday - August 22nd

Once again Makoto and Haruka only just made it to school on time and were panting heavily when they sat in their seats in the classroom. The rest of the class suddenly started gathering around the two – especially around Haruka.

“Nanase-kun,” a girl said. “Is it true your wrist is broken?”

Haruka didn’t bother to answer her. He just placed his wrist on the table and let the girl see for herself.

“Oh my!” another girl said. “How did it happen?”

Even if it was kinda rude, Haruka decided not to answer this question either, wondering why they absolutely needed to know about all that.

“Could I write on it?” the first girl asked.

“Why would you do that?” Makoto asked.

“At my elementary school a girl once broke her leg and we all got to write on it, our names or just a wish of her recovery,” the girl explained.

Makoto smiled, the idea sounded really sweet.

“No,” Haruka said.  

The girls whined loudly as their teacher entered the classroom and asked everyone to take their seats so she could start the lesson. This saved Haruka for further trouble about the cast and people who wanted to write on it… at least those from his class. However, he was still praying to whomever God that was out there that the same idea would never find its way into Nagisa’s head because it would be much more difficult to have him lay off with the idea.

* * *

 

After the training, by the end of the afternoon, everyone was heading home to Haruka’s place, with him and Makoto in the lead and the three younger students right behind them.

“Haru-chan!” Nagisa said. “I heard a few girls talk about writing on that cast of yours, think we could do that?” he asked.

 _DAMN YOU NAGISA!!!_ “No,” Haruka said without giving a further explanation.

“Aww, come on!” Nagisa whined. “I just wanna write something on it!”

“No,” Haruka said.

“Nagisa-kun, what would you want to write?” Rei asked curiously.

“Just something like ‘Hope you recover soon Haru-chan’ or something like that.” Nagisa smiled innocently at Rei and Rei looked confused at Haruka.

“What could be wrong with that, Haruka-senpai?” he asked.

Haruka looked at Rei with a look that told him to not ask any more questions. Rei got it and just shut up, though it wasn’t as easy to make the blonde boy shut up.

“Yeah Haru-chan what’s wrong with it?” Nagisa asked.

“I don’t want it,” was all Haruka said, causing both Nagisa and Gou – who had taken interest in the conversation – to whine loudly as the group made it to Haruka’s home.

Haruka just unlocked the door silently allowing everyone to enter the house. The other four made themselves at home and sat down in the living room, just waiting.

Haruka went to the kitchen and prepared dinner. Makoto had decided what they’d have, knowing that Haruka would most likely just make mackerel.

“Haru-chan?” Nagisa entered the kitchen while Haruka was cooking.

Haruka turned his head in Nagisa’s direction, showing him that he was listening while still cooking with only one eye on what he was doing.

“Can’t I write on the cast?” Nagisa asked.

Haruka just glared coldly at Nagisa before turning back to his cooking project, paying it his full attention. As he was cutting vegetables, he was starting to feel pain in his wrist. He refused to ask for help though, even if he knew that would be the best idea. He didn’t want to bother his friends. He never did bother them, not intentionally anyway.

“Haru-chan?” Nagisa was still standing there, he hadn’t moved since he’d asked his question. “Shouldn’t I help you?”

Haruka stepped away from the only half-done vegetables and Nagisa got up to finish the job for him. He’d noticed the look of pain that had appeared on the black-haired’s face and had that feeling that he wasn’t going to ask for help anytime soon.

“Thanks,” Haruka said as Nagisa stepped back from the now all done vegetables.

“It’s no problem, Haru-chan,” Nagisa said. “Just ask another time, we don’t mind helping you out.”

Haruka couldn’t help but smile at the way Nagisa sounded like Makoto when he said that. It wasn’t like their voices were similar; it was what Nagisa had said. Haruka could just hear Makoto say those same words.

The rest of the night went smoothly. Nagisa kept on begging to get to write on Haruka’s cast but the older teen stood his ground and refused to let the younger boy write on his cast. Gou started to ask to write on it too but Haruka still kept on refusing both of them.

After a while of discussing where to sleep, they all decided to sleep on the floor in the living room. Everyone then got ready for bed and went to sleep shortly after.


	5. Saturday - August 23rd

When Haruka woke up the following morning, the first thing his saw was a mess of colors of all kind. Looking a bit closer he could make out a heart, a few fish, some flowers here and there and the kanji for Nagisa Hazuki and what he assumed was the kanji of Rei’s name somewhere else.

Sometimes it was really incredible what that boy could do despite the fact that someone denied him something. Wait a second, maybe that was exactly why he did it. Haruka sighed. He got up from the middle of a bunch of people and went to the bathroom.

He managed to fill the bathtub with water and slip into it when the door opened and Makoto made eye contact with him from the door.

“Just got in, huh?” he asked.

Haruka just nodded, letting his head sink half underwater.

Makoto laid eyes on the cast around Haruka’s wrist and smiled. “I take it Nagisa had his way with it?” once again Haruka just nodded in respond.

“Whatever you do, don’t get the cast wet,” Makoto informed before shutting the door. Haruka knew he’d be back when he had to get up, which wouldn’t be before at least an hour had passed. He had plenty of time with his precious water for now.

* * *

 

Makoto pulled Haruka out of the water just before they had to leave. Gou had made breakfast for all of them while Haruka had been soaking, so he missed out on today’s dose of mackerel. Nagisa was as cheerful as ever even though Haruka kept glaring at him and the boy kept on playing innocent until Haruka confronted him and Rei about it later.

“It wasn’t my fault Haruka-senpai!” Rei claimed.

“No, Rei-chan!” Nagisa whined. “You suggested we should draw those fish on it!”

“It was only a suggestion, Nagisa-kun!” Rei shook the boy lightly. “It was you who wrote my name on it!”

“Because you were part of it!” Nagisa whined again.

Haruka was getting a headache from listening to that stupid argument of their’s. It didn’t really surprise him that Rei wasn’t directly involved and the one who had the most responsibility (the only one responsible) was Nagisa.

“Haru, Nagisa, Rei!” Makoto called from the hallway. “We need to get going or we’ll be late!”

All three of them hurried outside and they went to Samezuka Academy for their joined practice as quickly as possible. They were already running late, but somehow they made it just in time.  

“There you are,” Rin said. He had been standing outside, waiting for them to arrive.

They all went inside and Rei, Nagisa and Makoto went to change while Haruka followed Gou to the sidelines with the irritation boiling inside him.

“So, Haru’s not gonna be able to swim with us today?” Rin asked looking at Makoto as the taller boy changed into his swimsuit.

“No,” Makoto answered. “His right wrist is to not have any contact with water for about four more weeks.”

“That’s too bad, so that means he won’t be able to swim for a month. How does he cope with that?” Rin asked.

Makoto thought about his answer. “I’m not sure if he’s even coping at all. He soaks in the bathtub as much as he can as usual, but I think the fact that he can’t get to swim in the pool bothers him a lot.” He finished changing and looked at Rin. “I’m still in need of your help next weekend.”

Rin nodded. “We’ll talk about that later.” He paused.“After practice,” he said as he exited the changing room, the others following right behind him.

* * *

 

The practice went fine. Everyone was doing great and it was fun for all parties. However, half way through, Haruka decided he wanted to join in on the fun and tried to jump into the water. He got as far as to take off his clothes as he was only wearing his swimsuit before Gou managed to stop him. However, Haruka was stronger than her and she was holding onto his left arm, which didn’t bother him, so it wasn’t until Makoto got out of the water that they managed to get Haruka back to the sidelines.

Rin was amused at the sight but he did worry that he might get into that same kind of trouble the following weekend if he agreed to help Makoto out and look after Haruka.

“How do you think it could work out with me looking after him next weekend? First he needs to get here,” Rin said taking first things first after they’d finished practice and he sat down on a bench with Makoto.

“I’m leaving on Friday morning. The others will keep an eye on him at school and take him to you in the afternoon. I’ll come pick him up Sunday or you can just bring him home… but I’d rather the first,” Makoto said.

“You don’t trust him very much, do you?” Rin leaned back.

“Not when it comes to water,” Makoto sighed regretfully. “But it’s for his own good.”

Haruka walked up to them and sat down on the other side of Makoto, not saying a word. Nobody else did either for that matter; they didn’t mind him being there since it did concern him.

“Do you plan on staying here for the weekend?” Makoto asked.

Rin shrugged. “That’s what I usually do.”

“Where is he going to stay then?” Makoto asked.

Rin sighed slightly annoyed. “I’ll figure something out for Friday!” he practically yelled. This thing was kinda stressing him out.

“Okay,” Makoto smiled, “And you are willing to take the responsibility?” he asked just to be sure.

Rin really thought it through. Was he willing to take such responsibility? If he couldn’t handle Haruka and the cast got wet, Makoto would be really upset. Rin knew that if it weren’t for the camp and Makoto’s lack of trust in Haruka when it came to water he would’ve taken care of the blue eyed boy himself. Rin could tell from the situation he’d witnessed earlier that it won’t be an easy task, but only because of that, not many would be able to handle it.

“I’m sure,” Rin finally said, nodding to prove his point, not as much to Makoto as to himself.

“Thanks Rin,” Makoto answered as he got up. “Haru,” he looked at the blue-eyed boy. “We should get going, the others are waiting.”

Haruka followed Makoto away from the place while Rin was just staring after them. He couldn’t believe that he’d just accepted to do Makoto that favor of looking after a boy his own age like a babysitter.


	6. Monday - August 25th

“So what did you agree with Onii-chan to do with Haruka-senpai?” Gou asked first thing when she saw Makoto and Haruka at school on Monday morning.

Makoto explained their agreements – which didn’t take much more than half a minute – and then fell silent.

Nagisa and Rei came rushing up to them, for once they’d been a bit late for God knows what reason, maybe they just wanted to stay away from Haruka as much as possible. Makoto wouldn’t blame them for that, since the girls had noticed the cast, now with about a thousand colors and symbols on it, they’d been begging none-stop for Haruka to let them write on the cast as well. Haruka of course had denied them.

“Haru-chan! Mako-chan!” Nagisa waved at the two, not stopped by the angry, murderous glare Haruka send him. The duo stopped in front of the others and they were now all gathered.

“Lay off with the –chan,” Haruka snapped in a low voice that was supposed to be scary but failed to do that because Haruka wasn’t usually trying to scare anyone.

Nagisa ignored it, of course, and everyone knew that what so ever he would never lay off with the –chan. He never did no matter how many times someone told him to. And just because Haruka had had enough of him for the time being, it still wasn’t enough to make him lay off.

“So, how was your weekend?” Nagisa asked, looking at everyone. “What’d you do?”

“Haru was over at my place yesterday and stayed overnight,” Makoto answered. “Aside from that we did nothing special…”

“Are you planning to stay with Haruka-senpai all the time until his cast is removed, Makoto-senpai?” Rei asked.

“Except from next weekend, that’s the plan,” Makoto answered. He didn’t mind at all that it had to be like that, he just hoped he wouldn’t grow too tired of looking after his friend.

Haruka didn’t object to that.

“Won’t it be a little repetitive?” Gou asked.

“I don’t think either of us mind that much,” Makoto answered.

“I know! On the weekend September 13th to 15th we could have a birthday party!” Nagisa suggested.

“None of us have our birthday around that time,” Rei said. “You just had your birthday at the beginning of this month and the next birthday coming up is Makoto-senpai’s in November,” He informed.

“I’m impressed you keep taps on that,” Makoto admitted.

Rei was blushing with pride at that.

“What about Rin-chan?” Nagisa asked looking at everyone.

“Onii-chan’s birthday isn’t until February,” Gou said.

The grin on Nagisa’s face got wider and everyone got a slight clue of what was coming next. “Then we’ll just celebrate the birthday of Iwatobi-chan!” he said.

“Nagisa-kun,” Rei whispered. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

Makoto nodded at Rei’s statement with an apologetic smile at the short boy, while Haruka sent him a glare that couldn’t be understood any different than ‘No way’. Gou didn’t look too pleased with the idea either and Nagisa realized that Iwatobi-chan might not have been the best idea.

“Maybe we should quit the thing with a birthday party,” Makoto suggested. “And just have it being a party?”

Nagisa lit up. “Then what kind of party?” he asked.

“Pool party,” Haruka said.

“That might be a bad idea, you will still have your wrist in the cast at that time,” Makoto advised kindly.

Haruka nodded, slightly unhappy that he couldn’t have his pool party.

“We can have a pool party the following weekend?” Gou suggested. “To celebrate that you’re free, Haruka-senpai?”

Haruka cheered up when he heard those words. He’d have his pool party after all and Makoto didn’t object to the idea. He believed that Haruka deserved it anyway.

“But what about the party the weekend before?” Rei asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“We could just have a sleepover for the team?” Nagisa suggested.

“Won’t that leave out Gou?” Makoto asked worriedly.

Nagisa thought of that for a bit. “Guess it would, sorry Gou-chan!”

“Hey! I wanna be a part of it too!” Gou whined.

They ended up _maybe_ having a sleepover somewhere in the middle of September. Though nothing was for sure yet. It wasn’t even certain if Gou would come along or not, but the idea of something to look forward to made the next long period of time much more fun for not just Haruka and Makoto, but the rest of the group as well.


	7. Wednesday - August 27th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Someone is going to die in this chapter (an OC) and it is going to have influence on how the story develops after this.

Nothing or nobody could’ve warned Haruka and Makoto of what would happen later on this day. To them it was just an ordinary Wednesday – a day of water. As usual Haruka could be found in the bathtub that morning and Makoto would do his best to make sure he wouldn’t put his right wrist into the water. Haruka had gotten pretty much used to it by now. However, it still upset him that this particular part of his body couldn’t get wet.

“Haru, we have to hurry or we’ll be late!” Makoto opened the door to the bathroom to check on his friend.

Haruka said nothing. He felt comfortable in the bathtub and didn’t want to leave the water. Why did time have to pass so quickly?

Makoto stepped in and reached out his hand. “Come on,” he said and Haruka grabbed his hand, allowing the green eyed boy to pull him out of the bathtub.

After a quick round of mackerel they were all set and ready to go to school.

* * *

 

“Nakayama-san? Would you pass these out please?” Miss Amakata asked and a girl stood up to pass out whatever it was, Haruka wasn’t paying attention.

Nakayama made her way around the classroom placing something on each table. Haruka learned it was the assignment due… some time before the summer break, when she put one on his table. A loud thud was heard and Haruka looked up, noticing that the girl had tripped over her own legs. Papers were lying everywhere around her.

“Oh?” Miss Amakata looked at the scene. “Nanase-kun, would you please help Nakayama-san gather the papers?” she asked.

Haruka got down from his chair and helped the girl gather the papers. She looked at him and blushed just a little bit. Haruka didn’t understand why she was blushing like that. She didn’t know him. They’d never spoken to each other.

“Thank you, Nanase-kun,” she said as she stood up and continued handing out assignments. Haruka sat back up on his seat and followed the rest of her way around the classroom.

* * *

 

“Haru?” Makoto asked when classes had ended for the day. “Is there something you haven’t told me?” he asked curiously. Just like Haruka, he’d noticed that Nakayama had been blushing while Haruka had helped her gather the papers.

“No,” Haruka answered. “I don’t know why she was blushing.”

“I think she’s crushing on you,” Makoto said.

“Does Haru-chan have someone crushing on him?” Nagisa questioned. The duo had made it to the pool area and the others were already there and happened to overhear the last of their conversation. All of them were now looking at Haruka and Makoto with curiosity painted all over their faces.

“It looks like it,” Makoto answered.

“Who?” Gou asked eagerly.

“Nakayama-san from our class,” Makoto answered.

“Who is that?” Nagisa asked.

Makoto smiled. “Guess you don’t know her, well I barely know her either, actually I didn’t notice her until today when she tripped in front of Haru’s desk and dropped a lot of papers.”

“Do you know her Haru-chan?” Nagisa asked.

“No,” Haruka said.

Gou smiled. “Well, she is just crushing on Haruka-senpai. I don’t think it’ll last forever.”

The others agreed to her statement and they went on and started swimming.

Haruka kept on thinking about the girl. She wasn’t part of that group that was following just about everything in class. This group was also the one that had asked to write on the cast. As far as he was aware, she was pretty much the same as him, preferring to stay silent unless she had to speak. Haruka wasn’t sure if he wanted a girlfriend like that though.

 _Then what kind of girlfriend do I want?_ He asked himself. He wasn’t sure if he knew the answer to that question though. Maybe he wanted someone who would talk to him and didn’t mind that he would stay silent. Yeah that seemed alright with him, but they should also understand when he wanted silence. Someone who didn’t mind his addiction to water, maybe they could even enjoy being in the water as well. However, as far as he knew, there was no one like that anywhere in this world. And if there was, he still had yet to meet her.

Haruka had been so lost in thoughts he didn’t realize that the others had finished swimming already and Makoto called his name while waving his hand in front of his face.

“Haru, Haru?” he called while still waving.

Haruka blinked and looked up.

Makoto smiled at him. “What were you thinking about?” he asked as Haruka stood up.

“Nothing,” came the answer and the two left the school to go home and have their dinner. Haruka planned on making mackerel, thanks to Makoto, he hadn’t had mackerel for dinner for a week now and he missed it just a tiny bit.

“Do you want anything special for dinner?” Makoto asked as if reading Haruka’s thoughts.

“Mackerel,” Haruka answered.

Makoto chuckled. “Should’ve guessed that,” he said as they went on their way to Haruka’s place. “Where do you want to stay tomorrow night?” Makoto asked. “I’m leaving early so I’m planning on sleeping at home. You could come with me,” he said.

Haruka nodded. “Then I stay at your place,” he said.

“Ren and Ran will be happy to hear that,” Makoto said smiling at the thought of how his younger siblings would react.

Haruka just then bumped into someone and looked down, only to notice Nakayama looking up at him. She quickly jumped away with shock on her face while blushing madly.

“I’m so sorry, Nanase-kun!” she yelled, almost in a panic. “I didn’t see where I was going!”

Haruka just nodded to show that he accepted her apology.

“What are you doing out here, Nakayama-san?” Makoto asked.

“I was on my way to the store,” the girl answered. “Where are you going?”

“Home from school,” Makoto answered. “We just finished swimming.”

“Oh yeah,” Nakayama smiled. “You’re in that swim club, how is that?” she asked politely, looking more at Haruka than at Makoto.

Haruka didn’t know what to say and looked at Makoto instead, Makoto looked back at Haruka.

“Well…” Haruka trailed off. “It’s okay.” He disliked giving his opinion on such subjects, maybe she wasn’t as much like him as he’d first thought, but it didn’t mean anything in a good way. She could be a friend but she was not a potential girlfriend.

“We all enjoy it pretty much,” Makoto answered.

Haruka had gotten tired of standing around and pulled Makoto’s arm, forcing him to continue. That was when a sound hit them. It was loud and irritating their ears. Haruka noticed that Nakayama covered her ears, and the next thing he knew was that he was being pushed backwards by Makoto while he could only watch as a car hit Nakayama and threw her into the building before the car hit the building as well.

“Nakayama-san!” Haruka yelled, causing Makoto to look over his shoulder.

“Oh no…” he whispered. He pulled out his phone and called for help.

Haruka sensed nothing at all from that point. He heard sounds and saw lights, heard voices from strangers and Makoto who were speaking to each other. All his mind could process was that Nakayama had died in that car accident they’d just witnessed. He could’ve died too if Makoto hadn’t pushed him away from there at the very last second.

What Haruka noticed next, was that he and Makoto were standing outside his house and Makoto was trying to unlock the door. Haruka reached out and helped him open it.

“Are you okay, Haru?” Makoto asked. His face was pale and Haruka suddenly got worried about his taller friend.

“I’m fine,” he said before going in. He decided to quit the mackerel and make some tea for now. That would do them much better at the moment. He handed Makoto a cup and the other sat down in silence. They were both in shock. Still thanks to Makoto, Haruka had been able to process it while he took care of everything else. Haruka knew that now was his time to take care of Makoto.

“You should be home,” he told the other.

“I’m fine.” Makoto’s lie was more than obvious. His voice was a bit shaky and he was still pale.

“We stay at your place tonight,” Haruka demanded before going to pack up what he needed before coming back and pulling Makoto up on his feet before they were heading home to Makoto.

Makoto’s parents took care of them from then on. Ren and Ran kept on asking questions and Haruka explained what had happened. On their way over, Makoto had gone into a state of total shock and Mr. and Mrs. Tachibana now took care of both the boys, making them another cup of tea and then sending them to bed.

“Thanks Haru…” Makoto said when they’d been left to sleep in Makoto’s room.

“Huh?” Haruka looked at Makoto in confusion.

“I don’t think I could’ve explained it again,” Makoto said.

“It’s nothing,” Haruka said. They were silent for a while before Haruka found the words he was looking for. “Thank you, Makoto,” he said.

“For what?” Makoto wasn’t asleep yet like Haruka had expected.

“For saving me,” Haruka answered

Makoto smiled. He hadn’t been able to save Nakayama but if he’d tried to save the girl, he would’ve lost his best friend, and he’d rather have Haruka staying alive than watching him die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely sure why I decided to do this, kill a random character I mean. It has been a while since I wrote this. But if I remember correctly there are two major reasons as to why this happened. If you have read That Day, I will tell you that what triggered that, was also what caused this, along with the High Speed volume 1 which I had just started reading around that time as well. I think it was chapter 2 specifically. I read it the day the incident from That Day had occurred. Both had a huge mental impact on me.   
> I must say, now I feel really bad about having Haruka and Makoto go through something like that. It's outright mean. But since this has a huge impact on the development of the story, it's hard to delete unless I rewrite the whole thing, and I'm not about to do that.   
> I don't know what'll happen to the publishing. The reason why I wouldn't be able to publish in a week's time has been moved to another day, about a week later. So I might just publish the entire story with one chapter per day. I have yet to decide. The thing is, I really want to do it with the breaks and all. I'll find a way to make it all work out fine.   
> Thanks for making it this far. 
> 
> Jackie


	8. Thursday - August 28th

Neither Makoto nor Haruka got much sleep that night. Both of them were too lost in thoughts to even think about such a thing. They were both aware of the other being awake, yet none of them said a word. They preferred the silence.

Makoto recalled his conversation with the policemen that had arrived at the scene only minutes after it’d all happened. They’d questioned him to no end.

“What happened?” an officer asked.

“I’m not sure,” Makoto answered. “We were talking and then I see the car driving towards us. Judging by the way the car was driven, I’d say the driver was drunk,” he explained.

“You say you were talking? To whom?” he asked.

“My friend behind me and the girl who got hit,” Makoto said nodding in first Haruka’s direction and then towards the car and the bloody mess. He hadn’t liked the scene. There was a lot of blood. He didn’t blame Haruka for going into a shock.

“Do you know her from somewhere?” The officer had asked then.

Makoto nodded. “She was one of our classmates, her name was Nakayama, I don’t know her first name though,” he explained.

An ambulance had made it to the place when the officer was done questioning Makoto and a doctor went to talk to him too.

“Were you here when this happened?” she asked.

Makoto nodded. “We were,” he said.

The doctor took a quick look at them. She asked Haruka about his wrist but the blue eyed didn’t respond at all, to anything.

“He broke his wrist about a week and a half ago,” Makoto answered. “And at the moment I think he’s in shock. We’d just finished talking to the girl who died,” Makoto explained.

“You knew her?” the doctor asked.

“She was one of our classmates, we didn’t know her that well though,” Makoto answered.

The doctor nodded. She grabbed two pieces of paper and wrote something on them. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“Tachibana Makoto,” Makoto answered. “My friend’s name is Nanase Haruka.” He also gave her the kanji for their names and she nodded while writing it down, before handing a paper to both of them.

“These are identical, it is if you find yourselves in need of help with coping this incident,” she explained. “To prove that you might be in need.” She paused. “If you find you don’t need these you can always throw them away,” she finished.

“Thank you,” Makoto answered before another question came to mind. “How bad was it? With the girl?” he asked.

The doctor looked directly at him. She had a sad but kind smile on her face. “Her body took a lot of damage, there is about a 99% chance she died instantly,” she answered.

Makoto nodded. At least Nakayama didn’t have to suffer.

* * *

 

The same thought ran through his head now. At least Nakayama didn’t suffer before she died and that was the most of a relief he could make out of it. He looked out the window, noticing the sun was rising now. He’d been awake almost all night. He turned his head, looking to his side. There was Haruka, the light of the rising sun was reflecting in his eyes.

“Do you know if she suffered before dying?” Haruka asked, as usual without much of a warning.

“They say there’s a 99% chance she died instantly,” Makoto answered. Haruka let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.

They stayed silent until Makoto’s mother knocked on the door telling both boys to get up and downstairs. She’d make them breakfast.

“Do you want to go to school today?” she asked when both Makoto and Haruka entered the kitchen.

Makoto looked at his mother. “We have a choice?” he asked.

She nodded. “It’s not easy after witnessing what you did last night. If you need time to cope, you can have the day off,” she said handing each of the boys a cup of tea.

“Thanks,” Makoto said accepting the cup. Haruka didn’t say a word, though to Mrs. Tachibana that was nothing new. She’d learned that Haruka was a person of few words.

“I’ll be going now,” she said. “Make sure to tell the school if you decide to take the day off.”

Makoto eyed Haruka, who looked like someone who could pretty much use staying home for the day. He didn’t want to admit it, but he didn’t want to go to school today either.

“Couldn’t you tell them?” he asked before his mother left the house.

The woman smiled kindly at her son. “Of course, I’ll do that,” she told him before leaving. Haruka and Makoto then had the entire day to themselves. They didn’t do anything or said anything. For most of the time the two just sat around. Haruka usually didn’t respond to anything at all. He’d accept what was given to him and he’d let whoever take things away from him, not caring if he could still use them or not.

Around afternoon, Makoto heard someone knocking on the door and went to open it. Outside were both Rei and Nagisa.

“What are you doing here?” Makoto asked surprised.

“We heard of what happened,” Rei said. “And we heard the teachers mention that you saw it so we came to see if you were doing okay,” he said.

Makoto smiled saddened. “Please, come in,” he said, stepping aside and allowing both boys to enter the house.

“Is Haru-chan here too?” Nagisa asked.

Makoto nodded. “Physically he is,” he answered.

“What do you mean physically?” Nagisa looked up at the taller male.

Makoto thought about how to put it right before speaking. “He doesn’t respond to anything other than accepting whatever I hand him and let me take it away whenever I want. He just sits there and does nothing. Honestly I’m getting worried.”

Both Rei and Nagisa nodded, understanding how he felt. They followed Makoto to where Haruka was sitting and sat down on either side of him.

“Haru-chan?” Nagisa asked.

Haruka didn’t even bother to look at him. He just sat in the same position he’d been sitting in for four hours.

“I don’t think anything’s gonna happen,” Makoto said. “I’ve already tried that a couple of times. It doesn’t work.”

Nagisa looked saddened from Makoto to Haruka and back to Makoto.

Makoto, who couldn’t stand this much longer, turned in the direction of the kitchen. “I’ll prepare you some tea,” he said. “And then I’ve gotta cancel the arrangement with Rin. I’m staying home,” he said as he left the room.

Nagisa and Rei exchanged looks. Both of them knew how much Makoto had been looking forward to this weekend. If he decided to not go camping with his family because of the way Haruka was coping, or not, he was really worried.

“Haruka-senpai, you should pull it together,” Rei whispered to Haruka as Makoto wouldn’t hear.

“Yeah, Haru-chan,” Nagisa said. “Mako-chan is really worried about you.” He also spoke in a voice as low as possible (for Nagisa) for the same reason as Rei. “He’s gonna quit the camping trip with his family because of you,” the boy continued.

Haruka didn’t seem to respond and none of the two noticed the slight change in their friend’s expression. Of course there is not much of a difference when going from dead face to stone-face?

Makoto entered the room with tea and cups for all four of them and placed it on a small table. As he stood up straight, Haruka did the same thing, looking directly into Makoto’s eyes.

“You go on that camp with your family,” he demanded.

Makoto’s eyes got slightly wider in surprise as a smile of joy crept across his face. Yet he still wasn’t sure and the smile quickly changed to a worried look. “Haru, are you sure you’ll be doing alright?” he asked.

Haruka nodded. “I’ll be fine. Rin can help me if I need to.” It wasn’t like he wanted to let Rin help him. But he had to say this, or Makoto wouldn’t go. And right now, his friend’s needs were more important than his own.

“If you’re sure… Then I guess I’ll go,” Makoto said while smiling at Haruka. “Are you doing better?”

Haruka nodded.

“Yay!” Nagisa yelled. “Mako-chan’s gonna go camping!”

Makoto smiled. He had an idea that Rei and Nagisa had spoken to Haruka while he was gone and that was why Haruka was speaking now. He also had a feeling that the other wasn’t completely honest when he nodded to answer the question, but he didn’t say a word. Maybe things would’ve changed tomorrow.


	9. Friday - August 29th

On this morning, Haruka had no time to soak in anyone’s bathtub. He was staying at Makoto’s place again and the entire Tachibana family had to get up early, and same rule applied to Haruka because he was a guest at the moment.

“Haru, I’ll be out of touch for the weekend so you really have to take care of yourself and not cause too much trouble for Rin,” Makoto informed.

Haruka understood, though he did nothing more to show it than just a small nod.

“Thanks Haru, take care, I’ll see you on Sunday,” Makoto smiled before heading off with his family.

Haruka decided to go to school even if it was still a bit early. Nagisa and Rei would be waiting outside for him, they’d told him that the day before when they’d been over.

* * *

 

It would be sad to say that Makoto had left Haruka without a worry on his mind. He really was worried about how things would turn out. Haruka wasn’t himself at the moment and it couldn’t have been more obvious even if he stood with a bright neon sign above him saying, ‘I’m not okay!’ Makoto didn’t like it.

But Haruka had asked him to go and Makoto knew that would be the best idea at the moment. They both needed time to think through what they saw the other day and maybe it was better for the both of them to actually have no contact to anything related to the accident, that including each other.

“Are you okay?” Makoto’s mother asked, looking at her oldest son.

Makoto smiled. “I’m fine.” He hoped she wouldn’t worry too much after that. He tried to shake his own worries off his mind. It would only make everything on this camp more difficult.

* * *

 

It was strange being back at school. And even stranger that Makoto wasn’t there with him. Makoto had always been there, or so it seemed, at least at school. And for some reason Haruka felt more distant to the others than usual.

Everyone except Nagisa and Rei had changed the way they acted, especially when he was around. When he entered the classroom that morning, everything fell completely silent. It wasn’t like Haruka would usually care much, but he was aware the only reason why they fell silent like this was because of him and that car accident involving Nakayama the other day.

The silence continued to follow Haruka all day. No matter where he went, people would either talk quietly or stop their conversation. Once he saw two first-years leaning close to each other and whispering while looking at him. They only stopped when Gou – who happened to be standing next to them – gave one of them an elbow to the side and walked up to Haruka to accompany him. She too didn’t say as much as usual.

 _I guess their silence is out of respect,_ Haruka thought as he continued down the hallway with Gou by his side.

* * *

 

“Haru-chan, over here!” Nagisa yelled as Haruka exited the school building that afternoon. Haruka walked up to them looking from one to the other in silent confusion. What were they doing here and why weren’t they at the pool?

“We’ve canceled today,” Rei said. “We’ve all agreed there’s no point in continuing with only half a team.”

Haruka nodded. He could see the idea, though he felt slightly envious. They had the chance to swim but didn’t take it, while he had to just stand by, without being able to swim no matter how much he desired to do so.

“Let’s go!” Nagisa said before starting to walk off. The others followed. Rei and Nagisa had agreed to escort Haruka to Samezuka Academy to make sure he wouldn’t come across any water on the way over there.

* * *

 

It took less time than Haruka had expected. Or it felt like less. Rei and Nagisa were both acting normally despite the car accident the other day, and how the rest of their schoolmates reacted to it all. Haruka found it comfortable to know that nothing had changed there.

It turned out more things hadn’t changed. When Haruka and the others arrived at the school, they noticed Rin and Sousuke standing outside, by the entrance to the campus. Sousuke had a backpack with him and looked pretty much like he was about to leave.

“Hey Rin-chan!” Nagisa waved, taking the lead of the group as they made their way up to Rin.

“I’ll see you Sunday,” Sousuke told Rin before heading off. He managed to send Haruka an ice-cold look before turning his head the other way. It was more than obvious that someone still had a problem with the blue-eyed boy.

“Rin-chan, were you waiting for us?” Nagisa asked.

“No,” Rin answered. “I was just here seeing Sousuke off.”

The silence after this was kinda uncomfortable for all parts until Nagisa and Rei both told Haruka goodbye and left.

“Come on,” Rin just said, making it clear that Haruka had to follow him. He did so and Rin led him to his room. “You’ll stay here with me,” he informed. “We have to get a madras for you though, since Sousuke won’t let you use his.”

Haruka said nothing. His mind had gone elsewhere.

“You have to help me get it,” Rin said slightly irritated.

Haruka then dropped his own backpack and followed Rin to a room where they got a madras for him and he helped Rin carry it all the way back to the room. Even if he didn’t want to, he knew at the same time that Rin wouldn’t ask for help unless he seriously needed it.

The rest of the day went by with no big events. Most of the time the two just spend in Rin’s room not really doing anything but sitting around in a comfortable silence. Rin had no idea of what to say and Haruka was just being Haruka and didn’t say a word.

They went to bed around the same time. It was as if they’d made a silent agreement of what they’d be doing at exactly what time, because their timing in everything they did was almost perfect.

Rin still found it weird having Haruka stay over and he still couldn’t believe that he’d agreed to this just because Makoto asked him to. It all seemed to be much more trouble than it was worth. Or would it be? The trick to it all was to make sure that Haruka didn’t catch sight of any kind of water which would be easy because the only place with enough water for Haruka to jump into was the pool, and the pool seemed far away at the moment.

With these comforting thoughts in mind, Rin fell asleep.

Haruka, however, couldn’t seem to catch any sleep at all. The only thing he could do was think about the accident, about Nakayama, about her crush on him, was that why she’d started talking to them? How cruel he’d been towards her and…

Haruka got out of bed and without making a sound he snuck out of the room, silently closing the door behind him to make sure Rin wouldn’t wake up.


	10. Satturday - August 30th

When Rin woke up, around sunrise, he wasn’t exactly sure what had awoken him, but he knew something wasn’t right. Looking to Sousuke’s bed he noticed it was empty, but somehow he knew that wasn’t it…

Rin then looked down on the floor to see the madras and that’s when he remembered that Sousuke had left the other day because Haruka would stay with him for the weekend. And he was gone… now why was that important again?

Rin was so sleepy he couldn’t seem to remember anything, but then, it all hit him like a brick wall and he was wide-awake.

Makoto had asked Rin to look after Haruka because he should not get into contact with water. Now the guy was missing. He’d most likely disappeared sometime during the night and Rin had failed his task of keeping an eye on Haruka completely.

Rin couldn’t decide what the worst part was, that Haruka had gone missing or that Rin knew where he had disappeared to?

No matter what, Rin knew that he had to get up and relocate Haruka even if it was an easy task it couldn’t wait. The sooner he found his water-loving friend, the better.

* * *

 

As Rin entered the pool area, he could clearly hear the sound of someone swimming around. He wasn’t surprised. He saw a small head moving around in the pool and this surprised him even less. He walked up to the edge and called out to the dark head out there.

“Haru! Come back here!” he called somewhat angry with the other.

Haruka didn’t even react to what Rin said. He just kept on swimming like he had nothing else to do.

Rin sighed. “Haru, if you don’t get back here I have to come drag you out of the pool myself,” he said.

Haruka still didn’t react.

Rin sighed yet again. He hated that he had to do this. But when Haruka was like this, he didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter. He stripped until he was only wearing his swimsuit and jumped into the water, quickly making his way to his stubborn friend.

“Haru, come on.” Rin grabbed Haruka’s shoulder, forcing the other to face him. “You need to get out of here or you’ll ruin the cast around your wrist and strain it as well.”

Haruka didn’t answer. He just looked down at his wrist and following his gaze, Rin could tell the cast was already pretty much ruined.

“For how long have you been here?” Rin asked.

Haruka shrugged.

“When did you get down here?” Rin asked trying his best to make Haruka speak.

“By midnight,” Haruka answered.

Rin nodded. At least he’d got an answer but he would admit it wasn’t exactly the answer he’d wanted. He’d hoped for something like an hour or half an hour but this was so much he couldn’t believe it. Makoto had told Rin about a time when nobody could seem to locate Haruka and it turned out he’d been at the pool for hours. What bothered Rin was that it had all been his fault because of something stupid he’d said to Haruka earlier that same day. If Haruka had been in the water since midnight – almost five hours – it could only mean that something was bothering him.

“What’s wrong, Haru?” Rin asked.

Haruka didn’t answer. He just looked down as if the water was much more interesting, which it most likely was.

“Is it something I’ve done?” Rin asked.

Haruka shook his head: ‘no’.

“Has someone else done something to you?” Rin asked as he felt anger rise inside. If anyone had hurt his friend, he swore he would…

Haruka shook his head once again.

“Then what?” Rin asked, getting irritated that he couldn’t figure out what in the world was up with Haruka. “Tell me what’s on your mind, because it’s obvious something’s wrong!” he practically yelled out the last part.

Something about Haruka changed just then. Rin couldn’t put his finger on it but it seemed Haruka had gotten a bit upset and all irritation disappeared.

“Come on Haru…” Rin said while wrapping his arm around Haruka’s shoulders, leading him to the poolside. Both of them sat up with their legs still in the water while letting their bodies dry in silence.

“Do you wanna tell me what’s happened?” Rin asked.

For a while they just sat there. Rin was waiting for Haruka’s answer, watching his face carefully for any sign of emotion until Haruka decided to speak, explaining everything that happened three days ago. He spoke for a total of two minutes while Rin just stared.

“That’s why I was down here, to get it all off my mind,” Haruka finished.

Rin’s jaw had dropped. He had never heard Haruka speak for so long and didn’t think it would ever happen. But there he was. Sitting by the edge of the pool a Saturday morning some time past 5 listening to Haruka explain what had happened to him and Makoto just a few days ago.

“I see,” Rin nodded, now looking down at his knees like they were very interesting. He didn’t know what to say or how to react to this. Somehow, he wanted to tell Haruka that he was sorry but he also knew that Haruka wouldn’t want his pity.

“We should have your cast changed…” Rin mumbled after ten minutes of silence.

Haruka nodded as the only response.

 _Makoto is not gonna be happy about this._ Rin thought.

* * *

 

Rin had been afraid the doctor at the hospital would be angry with Haruka for not taking better care, but all he did was asking an awful lot of questions about how the cast got as messed up as it did. Since Haruka didn’t answer at all, Rin had to try his best to answer the many questions while he was mentally cursing Makoto for going camping in the first place. Looking on the bright side, at least Haruka hadn’t strained his wrist in any way.

They’d been in the hospital for an awfully long time. Almost half the day had passed while they’d been waiting. It was in the middle of the afternoon when they finally checked out of there and started heading back to the academy.

When they made it back, Rin decided to do some homework he had due to Monday. He’d got nothing better to do and it should be possible to babysit Haruka and do homework in the same time. At least if the water-lover could do something too.

Rin sat by his desk, looking over his English. It was way too easy, at least for his standards. Of course, he’d been living in Australia for years. Anything English was easy. He could take care of that later… Then there was literature. Just the thought of all that reading gave Rin a headache. It would be better to just leave that alone…

“Rin?” Rin was snapped out of his thoughts by Haruka’s voice coming from behind him. He turned his head to look at the blue-eyed. He sat there with a book in hand on his madras, looking up at Rin with his usual expressionless face, yet Rin could tell Haruka needed help with something.

Looking at the title of the book, Rin quickly caught on to the problem.

“What don’t you understand?” Rin asked.

Haruka’s gaze turned to an irritated glare. That could only mean all of it.

Rin sat down on the madras next to Haruka, flipping through the pages in the English book. It wasn’t a long text, just about three pages, but Rin did find a few complicated words here and there, or at least complicated for everyone else.

“Okay…” Rin said. “Read out loud to me and stop by the first word you don’t understand,” he said. He needed to find out exactly how bad Haruka was at English and this was the only way to do it if he wanted to make sure he didn’t put the level too high or too low for Haruka. Both could cause their communication a few problems for the rest of the weekend.

Haruka started reading but hadn’t read more than a couple of words before he stopped.

“Decided,” Rin read out loud and translated the word to Japanese. Haruka couldn’t make any sense of it. That was at least what his eyes claimed.

They continued like that, and Rin tried to explain things to Haruka about the English language and pronunciations. Haruka still didn’t seem to get it though. But when Rin had him repeat some of the more difficult words it appeared he could actually remember some of it, though his English was still terrible.

They forgot everything about dinner. Haruka’s English problems had taken an awfully long time and when Haruka went to help Rin do some of his homework, it also ended up taking some time. It ended up being past midnight before the two were done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are going to keep up with the week-days from now on.


	11. Sunday - August 31st

“Damn,” Rin groaned, leaning back in his chair. Haruka was sitting on the madras looking out the window. He had a distant look on his face but that was pretty normal. “I’m hungry,” Rin complained. “What about you?”

Haruka shrugged as if saying ‘I guess’.

“Then what to do about it?” Rin asked, annoyed with the fact that Haruka wouldn’t come up with an idea. “There’s nothing open but supermarkets at the moment.”

“We just make mackerel,” Haruka said.

Rin’s expression froze and then went from slightly annoyed to complete disbelief. “Then you go buy it,” he said.

Haruka sat still, stubbornly. “I haven’t got any money,” he said.

Rin sighed. “Then no mackerel,” he said. “I don’t want it.”

Haruka turned his head and glared at Rin, ‘then cook something yourself,’ his eyes said.

“No way!” Rin practically yelled. “I can’t cook!”

Haruka kept on glaring at Rin until the other sighed and finally gave in. “Fine, I’ll go buy that damn mackerel… but where would you want to cook anyway?” he asked.

Haruka shrugged again. He would figure something out while Rin was gone. So, while Rin left to buy some mackerel, Haruka went around the academy to try and find a kitchen… though it did cross his mind to go swim in the pool again, he knew better than to annoy Rin further. 

* * *

 

Rin returned to his room and found Haruka sitting with his back leaned against the door. He was surprised that the other hadn’t gone into the pool but it was a relief that Haruka at least had a little bit of self-control.

“Did you find anything?” Rin asked.

Haruka stood up and nodded, signaling to Rin to follow him before walking down the hallway with Rin in toe.

Rin wasn’t surprised when he noticed that they were heading towards the dining hall. What surprised him was that they made their way to the kitchen, located behind the dining hall, and the fact that Haruka managed to open the door without any trouble.

“Since when did you have access to the kitchen?” Rin asked.

“The door was unlocked,” Haruka answered entering the room.

Rin followed, still trying to process what in the world was going on. Then it hit him, why were they even here? If they got caught they would be in serious trouble!

“Haru, we’re not supposed to be here,” Rin whispered.

Haruka glared at Rin from the cooker.

 _If we’re not supposed to be here then stay silent as we won’t be discovered,_ he thought, making those words pretty much obvious in the glare.

Rin understood and decided to not pick the argument with Haruka. Despite him being so silent he was really good at winning arguments that didn’t involve him having to go somewhere against his will. Rin handed Haruka the mackerel and stepped back allowing Haruka to do what he had to.

It didn’t take more than about a 10 minutes time before the mackerel was ready to be eaten and Haruka made an attempt to grab two plates, one for each, though it still wasn’t easy for him to use the right hand so Rin stepped in and took the plates out of Haruka’s hand.

“I should’ve bought something else…” he mumbled as Haruka put fish on the plates and Rin took both of them, carrying them into the dining room while Haruka just followed him.

They had their mackerel in silence and Rin washed the dishes before they went to bed. It had gotten pretty late and they’d been up for way too long.

* * *

 

Rin woke up when he heard someone enter the room. He was too tired to find out who it was though until their voice got through to him.

“Why are you still asleep? I thought you’d been up for hours?” Sousuke asked.

Rin sat up and looked at his phone. It was already past noon. Looking down to the madras, he also noticed Haruka was still sleeping. It was more understandable though. Chances were Haruka hadn’t got any sleep at all since Thursday night.

Sousuke dropped his back on his bed and Haruka picked just that moment to sit up, earning a glare from Sousuke for just being there.

Rin got up. He knew he had to get the two of them separated as soon as possible. Since neither liked the other very much, he figured this was the best solution for all parties.

“Come on Haru, we need to get everything back and prepare for Makoto to come,” Rin said.

Haruka nodded and got up, both of them quickly got dressed before helping each other out with the madras and headed outside.

“How’s your wrist doing?” Rin asked as the both of them sat down in the grass.

Haruka shrugged. Rin didn’t know what to get from that but he chose not to ask further questions. It was easier that way.

It was much like the first day. They just sat in silence. The sun was shining and it was a nicely warm day so none of them really minded being outside. Haruka lied down at some point and it didn’t take long before Rin noticed he was already asleep again.

Rin smiled. It was nice to see Haruka actually getting some rest. After what the other had been through, he understood why it would be so needed.

Reflecting on the weekend that had almost passed, Rin realized it hadn’t been as much babysitting as he’d feared. Actually it had just been Rin watching out for a really good friend. He wouldn’t mind if they had to do this some more, of course not under the same circumstances.

Rin’s phone vibrated and he checked the text message he’d got.

 

_Makoto:_

_I’ll be there to pick him up in an hour._

 

Rin looked at his message. Would it all be over in just an hour? No matter, there was nothing he could do to prevent it.

He quickly texted a reply to Makoto.

 

_Rin:_

_We’ll be waiting_

 

Rin woke Haruka up five minutes before Makoto would be there and gave him the information. Haruka had nothing to say and just stood up with Rin. Both of them made their way to the entrance where Makoto soon arrived too.

“Hey Haru.” He waved. “How’ve you been?” he asked.

Haruka just nodded. He didn’t even bother to wave.

Makoto made his way up to them and smiled at Rin quickly. “Thanks for looking out for him. Was it okay?” he asked concerned.

“It was fine,” Rin answered. “He didn’t cause too much trouble, and I actually had fun.”

Makoto nodded and smiled gratefully at Rin once again. “I’m glad to hear that,” he said before turning to Haruka. “Should we go?” he asked.

Haruka nodded and silently followed Makoto as they made their way back home.

Rin stood by the entrance and looked after the two boys until they’d turned around the next corner before he headed back inside. He needed to make up for all the training he had missed out on during the weekend and he only had less than half a day to do so.


	12. Monday - September 1st

“Why are they all so quiet?” Makoto asked Haruka in a hushed voice as they’d taken their seats in the classroom. It was just like it had been before the weekend. Everyone had been talking until Haruka and Makoto entered the classroom and then fell so silent you could almost hear a paper drop to the floor.

Haruka just shrugged at Makoto’s question. He didn’t know what to say and then why bother saying anything.

Makoto just nodded as if he could read Haruka’s thoughts and didn’t ask further questions about the odd silence among the other students.

School had become really uncomfortable for both Haruka and Makoto. Nobody spoke to them and when they made eye contact with anyone, they’d just either look away or look at them with pity in their eyes. The mood at the school was simply just depressing and Haruka only wished the other students would get over it already. It wasn’t like they were making coping with the accident any easier, quite the opposite in fact.

Nagisa and Rei were waiting outside their classroom when the lunch break started. They were still acting the same as usual. Haruka had to wonder if Nagisa was even able to let any kind of negative mood get to him.

“So how was your weekend, Mako-chan?” Nagisa asked smiling widely at Makoto.

“It was great!” Makoto said. “All of us had a lot of fun while camping. I wish you could’ve all come along,” he finished smiling saddened at Haruka who just looked down at the floor.

“What did you do, Makoto-senpai?” Rei asked as they walked down the hallway.

Makoto paused for a bit. “We did a lot of things, we went swimming, went for a hike in the area and just spent time together,” he explained. It wasn’t such a big deal.

“What about your weekend with Rin-chan?” Nagisa looked at Haruka with curiosity shining from every fiber of his body. It caused Haruka to wonder what Nagisa was even thinking about when he asked such questions.

“It was fine,” Haruka answered.

“What’d you do?” Nagisa asked.

 _Why does that even matter?_ Haruka wondered. He didn’t answer Nagisa’s question for that very reason, and Nagisa just had to live with not getting a reply.

This caused a somewhat disappointed look to appear on Nagisa’s face until Makoto opened his mouth to speak.

“What have you been doing in the weekend, Nagisa?” It was obvious that was the question Nagisa had just been waiting for, because he immediately started talking:

“Me and Rei-chan found this new game and went to play it and…” Nagisa went on and on about this game which he’d been playing with Rei all weekend. Makoto listened to it all with a look of interest on his face while Haruka just let all the words get in through one ear and out through the other. However, he’d soon come to regret that at Nagisa’s final words, “I know! We should get together and play this game sometime!”

“I sure would like to try it,” Makoto answered.

“You really should, it was fun,” Rei added.

They started talking more about the game and Haruka listened as best as he could. He knew the others would most likely force him to play it by telling him that water was somehow involved, so he would need to know as much about it as possible. However, Haruka couldn’t make much sense of their conversation.

After lunch break, everything went back to how it was the first half of the day. Haruka noticed that Makoto would keep on smiling no matter what, but that the silence and looks of pity kinda got to him.

“Makoto?” Haruka asked after school. “Are you okay?”

Makoto – who’d been lost in thoughts – snapped out of it and looked at Haruka. “I’m fine,” he answered. “We should hurry or we’ll be late for practice,” he then continued.

They weren’t late, and it turned out that Gou was acting normal now. Being acting pretty much like her usual old self, which was much of a relief to Haruka.

“Gou-chan!” Nagisa called. “Do you know what Haru-chan and Rin-chan did in the weekend?”

Gou thought for a bit. “No… I haven’t heard anything. I’ll ask Onii-chan about it!” Truth be told, Gou was curious too as to what her brother and Haruka had been doing.

While the others practiced, Haruka just sat still looking around, just waiting for something to catch his eye and take his mind of the blue not too far away from him. The water in the pool. How he wished he could just dive into it and leave behind every single worry he had.

This was when his eyes landed on something in Gou’s bag… or not in Gou’s bag exactly. It was a flier that had fallen out of Gou’s back with a headline reading ‘Ocean Festival’ in bright blue letters.

Haruka decided to pick it up and before he knew it, everyone’s attention was on him.

“Ocean Festival?” Makoto asked, reading it from the flier.

“Yeah!” Gou smiled. “They just handed them out randomly on the street. I thought it would be interesting. There’s a swimming contest too,” she said taking the flier from Haruka and pointing in the program that was also shown on the flier.

“That sounds fun,” Rei said as he, Nagisa and Makoto read through the program.

“There’s also a cooking contest,” Nagisa pointed out. “We should have Haru-chan participate in that!”

“There are so many contests on this program. I can’t believe the festival’s only three days long,” Rei commented.

“Yeah it’s incredible, isn’t it?” Gou asked. “It’s this weekend, I think we should go, it’s for free unless you buy something or bet on someone to win a contest.”

“I can’t believe they’d bet on people!” Makoto said slightly indignant.

“They do,” Gou said.

Makoto shook his head. He couldn’t seem to comprehend it.

“I think it would be fun to go there,” Gou said. “There’s a lot of things to do and look at, or so it appears and I don’t think it’s that bad about the betting,” she said.

“Gou-chan’s right!” Nagisa agreed. “It’ll be fun!”

And with that it was decided that they’d all be going to the Ocean Festival this upcoming weekend.


	13. Friday - September 5th

A bird flew by outside the window. Haruka watched it from his spot in the bathtub. The water was getting colder by the second but he didn’t mind. It felt the same to him no matter what. He’d completely lost his sense of time. The sun had been rising when he got in the bathtub and now it was up and he could hear Makoto starting to move around. He had gone back to spending the night at Haruka’s place. Nobody seemed to mind, but Ren and Ran – who’d been over the day before – did complain about how they missed him, and his mother complained about the fact that it was impossible to stop the twins from fighting when Makoto wasn’t around.

Maybe Haruka should make Makoto stay at home for a while. It wasn’t like he minded Makoto stayed at his place but he was keeping his friend away from his family and Haruka had pretty much learned to handle things on his own now, despite the broken wrist. He just had to convince Makoto, which would be the most difficult part of the task.

Speaking of Makoto: A knock was just then heard on the door and Haruka looked up to meet Makoto’s green eyes as the door opened. They looked somewhat shocked and Haruka didn’t understand a thing about that.

“What is it?” he asked after staring into Makoto’s eyes for five full minutes.

“Gou…” Makoto answered. “She has put all of us up for competitions.”

Haruka got out of the water. He noticed the word ‘contests’ was in plural and that could mean no good at all. And why had she done that in the first place? What’s more, how did Makoto know of this?

“I got a text from her, holding a photo of the program and where we would be competing,” Makoto answered. “I think you got one too.”

Strange… Haruka didn’t recall ever giving Gou his phone number since he hardly ever used his phone. He didn’t even have that many phone numbers himself. Only Makoto’s and Nagisa’s.

Checking his phone, it turned out it wasn’t even from Gou, but from Nagisa.

 

_Nagisa:_

_It’s important, Haru-chan!_ _Look at the program. It looks like we’ll be busy all day!_

 

Haruka sighed. Yes he could tell that. He could also guess that Nagisa had been another of the minds behind this busy program. The Ocean Festival would open tonight at 6 and after that there would be nothing but contests and competitions.

“Haru, do you know what an improvising show is?” Makoto asked.

Haruka shook his head. He had absolutely no idea of what an improvising show was or could come up with any clues to what it could have in store for them, but they had all been signed up for it, except Gou, for reasons unknown.

* * *

 

Makoto ended up asking the same question about six hours later at school when they ran into Gou.

“Oh that?” Gou asked smiling. “That’s a contest where you basically just act and improvise,” she answered.

“Why are we in that contest?” Makoto asked.

“We thought it’d be fun,” Gou answered.

“Who are ‘we’?” Haruka asked.

“Nagisa-kun and I,” Gou answered. “I guess he thought it would be fun,” she said.

Both Haruka and Makoto kinda figured that Nagisa had somewhat been involved in this matter. They were both surprised that they hadn’t just jumped to conclusions though.

Nagisa turned up just then and quickly read the situation.

“Nagisa, what’s with that improvising contest?” Makoto asked.

“I just thought it would be fun to get together like that. It’s basically that you just go up and perform a small play with first a team that you select and then a random team and then the one with the best amateur acting skills is pointed out by the judges,” Nagisa said.

“I think it could be fun,” Rei said.

Makoto nodded. “I like the idea too,” he said.

Haruka didn’t say a word but basically he was screaming inside his head:

_No Way!_

* * *

 

However, Haruka didn’t have much of a say in the matter. When Makoto offered he could get to spend as much time in the water the following day if he participated, he just had no other choice but to come along. No need to say he still wasn’t pleased with the idea.

It turned out that Gou was participating as well, but for a different team. From the looks of it she had forced Rin and his swimteam to come along and ‘join in on the fun’ as Nagisa stated when he saw them.

There were all kinds of groups with different numbers of people in each. The numbers went from three to six. The teams were to make up an act of their everyday lives and they decided what kind of act it would be, if it would be comedy or tragedy or anything in between.

Somehow Haruka ended up being the captain from his team and got the chance to pick a name for the team.

“Team Free,” he decided without giving it much thought. Makoto smiled at this. A typical Haru-thing to say.

What Team Free ended up making was an unwilling comedy. The best part was when someone mentioned the pool and Makoto had to wrap his arms around Haruka to make sure he didn’t run right into the ocean full speed. Nagisa played well too. He was also a good source of amusement to those watching. Makoto and Rei had their hands full trying to restrain the other two.

Rin’s team – Team A, in lack of any better names – also made a comedy mostly based on Momo trying to be at Gou’s side all the time and Rin trying to get him away while Ai and Sousuke just stood in the back leaving the stage to the others.

After this came the mixed teams. Rei and Nagisa were up as the first team. They were told to act like a couple while another girl would act as Nagisa’s best friend who just got heartbroken. The fourth player had to pick a role for himself. It turned out funnier than expected. Nagisa was all lovey-dovey with Rei and barely cared that his friend was heartbroken. While she played the perfect role of broken mess, he kept on talking about how nice it was being with Rei, until the knight in shining armor came and comforted her instead.

“I feel kinda bad about it,” Nagisa said as he sat back next to the others along with Rei.

A few rounds passed before it was Makoto’s and Haruka’s turn. It turned out Rin and Ai had been selected for this round as well. Haruka got the role of passive character while Rin and Makoto got to be his admires in love and want him for themselves. Ai was supposed to get some other good idea, which ended up with him trying to make all three of them go together. It turned into a lot of awkwardness since all four of them felt out of character while performing this play, but people couldn’t seem to stop laughing when Makoto and Rin took turns pulling Haruka’s arms and afterwards starting to argue while Haruka tried to sneak to the beach to just take a closer look at the water… He didn’t make it far before both Rin and Makoto pulled him back.

It came to an end when Makoto asked:

“Who would you rather be with?”

“Ocean-chan,” Haruka declared.

Rin stood dumbstruck while Makoto just smiled saying that if that was what he wanted he could get that and everyone else seemed pleased with that ending.  

Despite their ‘efforts’, the winner of the improvising contest was the girl who had played Nagisa’s broken friend, for her ability to cry fake tears. Nobody minded that. At least they had had their fun trying to be something they weren’t.

Tomorrow would be different though. Then they would be doing something they were actually good at.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry. The chapter is late! I wanted to publish it yesterday but I had no time for this, so I will publish one chapter now and another... sometime later today.   
> I hope you enjoy this chapter, even if it's late. I'll do my best to keep up the updates.   
> Thank you so much for reading this story. 
> 
> Jackie


	14. Saturday - September 6th

It was the 2nd day of the Ocean Festival. Makoto was standing in the sand on the beach with Nagisa and Rei. They were warming up for the swimming tournament that would begin in about half an hour. They were all aware it was a bit early to start warming up but they found it was a good idea to get there a bit earlier. Besides Haruka couldn’t wait to get into the water.

That’s where he was now. He was sitting in the water, wearing his swimsuit all relaxed as he felt the waves make their way around him and hit his body. He was aware Makoto was watching him and therefor he wouldn’t dare go further out than he could still sit in the water without getting the cast wet. At the moment, said cast was resting on top of his knees while receiving annoyed glares from the boy wearing it.

Haruka had started counting down the days till when it would get off. There were less than two weeks until then. He’d already endured almost three weeks of this living hell.

Haruka heard someone walking up to him from behind. He turned his head to see Makoto standing there.

“Haru,” his friend said. “Nagisa is gonna swim soon. I’ll go watch him.” He paused for a bit until Haruka nodded. “You stay here and keep your wrist out of the water, okay?” Makoto looked at Haruka like a strict mother.

 _Yes MaMakoto,_ Haruka thought while looking into Makoto’s eyes, silently telling him that he understood.

Makoto nodded, smiling just as kindly as ever and left Haruka.

Haruka could only dream of how it would feel to be all covered in water, to float around, or even swim. It felt like ages since he last had a swim, though it was only a week ago and he’d been in that pool for hours, swimming and floating as he pleased until Rin had come and got him out of the water.

He would’ve rather stayed in the water all day… Damn Rin who had to wake up at all. But nobody could help it. Haruka was just glad Makoto had bought the lie with him finding a way to clean the cast without getting it wet.

The wind picked up and the waves got a little higher than before. Haruka had lost his sense of time. Why weren’t the others back yet? Well, if they hadn’t returned then wouldn’t it mean that they wouldn’t be back any time soon? The wind was kinda chilly and the water felt much warmer. Haruka was sure it wouldn’t hurt to get a little further out and float for a bit. As long as the wrist in the cast rested on his body, he should be fine anyway.

So that was why Haruka was soon floating around, just letting the waves carry him wherever they pleased. It was relaxing just floating like this, but he’d much rather swim than just float. But sadly that…

“Hey you!” some guy yelled, catching Haruka’s attention. “If you’re gonna compete in the swimming tournament, you should get in place!” he yelled.

“I only swim free…” Haruka said with that bored attitude of his.

“Well, then hurry it up! That’s about to start!” The guy yelled pulling Haruka to the beginning line by his left wrist.

Haruka blinked confused. He hadn’t even signed up for this but here he was suddenly swimming free in the ocean with other swimmers. How did this even happen again?

“GO!” Someone yelled and the swimmers took off.

Haruka’s wrist had already gotten completely soaked so what the hell was there to do? What else could go wrong? He started swimming as well, not really caring for anything other than each stroke.

* * *

 

On shore Makoto stood between Nagisa and Rei. They were all waiting for their times to be listed. They still hadn’t finished the breast stroke which they’d started ranking from last place to first place.

“Oi, Makoto?” Someone poked Makoto’s shoulder.

The tall boy turned his head and found himself looking into Rin’s face.

“Rin? What are you doing here?” Makoto asked surprised. He hadn’t seen Rin in the Butterfly tournament and they were swimming Free now as far as Makoto was concerned.

“Never mind me. Check the one in the lead,” Rin demanded, nodding in the direction of the swimmers in the water.

Makoto followed the direction with his gaze and found himself standing with his mouth wide open as he caught sight of the one in the lead. It couldn’t be…, “Haru?” he asked.

“I figured you’d got nothing to do with that…” Rin mumbled. “How do you think he got there?”

“I thought I saw someone pulling Haru-chan to the start line earlier,” Nagisa butted in.

Makoto looked over at him. “Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked.

“Well, his right wrist was in the water so I couldn’t be sure if it was Haru-chan and it would’ve already been too late,” Nagisa smiled knowingly.

Makoto sighed. The question was now; who was the guy and how did he catch sight of Haruka? Maybe Haruka would have some of the answers, at least for the last question. Makoto hoped that was the case, for Haruka’s sake.

Haruka made it to finish as the first one and got out of the water shortly after, knowing that Makoto would most likely be looking for him at the moment. He was right on that one.

As soon as he was back on dry land, a disappointed Makoto could be found right in front of him.

“Haru, what were you doing in the water?” Makoto asked glaring at the blue eyed the best he could.

“Floating… swimming,” Haruka answered truthfully.

Makoto realized he wouldn’t get much further explanations out of Haruka and therefore left the subject for the time being. “Come on,” he said pulling Haruka’s left wrist. “We’re going to the hospital to get another cast. Your next contest isn’t until in a few hours.”

Haruka didn’t object. He just followed Makoto willingly. He could still sense the slightly disappointed, slightly annoyed aura around the other, making the air feel much heavier than it usually was. He just hoped the doctor from last Saturday wouldn’t be there…

* * *

 

Luck just wasn’t on Haruka’s side that day. He and Makoto got in almost immediately after their arrival at the hospital and the one who welcomed them was the doctor from last weekend. The man smiled and greeted Haruka, showing the recognition.

“He got his cast wet,” Makoto just said while showing the messed up cast.

“Again?” the doctor asked as he got the wet cast off. “I assume you went swimming again too.” He looked at Haruka.

“Again?” Makoto asked, blinking confused.

The doctor looked at Makoto, obviously surprised. “He was here last weekend with some other guy,” He answered.

Makoto looked at Haruka. “Haru, Is that true?” he asked.

Haruka said nothing. He just nodded, refusing to meet Makoto’s hurt eyes.

“What happened?” Makoto asked as the doctor changed the cast on Haruka’s wrist.

“I coped with the car accident,” Haruka answered.

Makoto nodded understanding. Haruka’s best way of coping with things hitting him emotionally was usually swimming. It didn’t really come as a surprise. What came as a surprise was that Rin hadn’t told him and that Haruka had obviously lied about it. He would need to take this conversation with both of them some other time.

They got checked out around 15 minutes later and left the hospital in silence. What was there to say anyway? Makoto was left to his own thoughts and Haruka just didn’t really feel like talking at the moment. There was nothing to say anyway.

They got back in time for the drawing contest and Haruka did compete, though he didn’t win anything since he only went into it half-heartedly. Nagisa claimed that he could’ve done a lot better than what he did, which was true, but Haruka just didn’t feel like it.

Makoto couldn’t seem to catch sight of Rin anywhere the rest of the day. Even if he looked as hard as he possibly could, the boy seemed to have disappeared completely. Nobody else had seen him either.

* * *

 

Night came and Makoto and Haruka went to Makoto’s place to stay there for the night. They’d barely spoken a word to each other since they’d been at the hospital and this worried Haruka a lot to say the least.

“Are you angry with me?” he asked as they lied in bed in Makoto’s room.

Makoto turned his head to look at Haruka, surprised. “I’m not angry,” he answered. “Disappointed, yes. Angry, no,” he finished as he and Haruka made eye contact.

Haruka was relieved. That was good to hear. “And Rin?” he asked just to be sure.

“I have to speak to him but I’m not angry with him. I guess it’s just disappointment in his case too,” Makoto answered honestly.

Haruka smiled. He’d seen it coming. Makoto wasn’t the type of guy who would get angry with someone just because. Even if they'd hurt him and kept things hidden from him and lied to him he still believed in the best in people.

“Makoto?” Haruka asked.

“Mmm…?” Makoto mumbled already half asleep. It had been a long day for him.

“I’m sorry,” Haruka said, feeling like that was the right thing to do. After all, he did take advantage of Makoto’s naivety and told him a lie.

“Apology accepted…” Makoto mumbled. He’d closed his eyes now. “Goodnight Haru.”

Shortly after that, both boys were asleep. Both happy there was nothing bad between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost forgot to publish! Thank God I remembered just in time before I shut down my laptop.   
> A huge goodnight from here. See you all tomorrow
> 
> Jackie


	15. Sunday - September 7th

“Rei-chan!” Nagisa called while wrapping an arm around Rei’s shoulders. “I wanna go swimming in the ocean!”

“You can swim by yourself if you want to, Nagisa-kun, Remember Haruka-senpai is not allowed to swim with us,” Rei said.

“But it’s boring to swim on my own! Won’t you go with me, Rei-chan?” Nagisa begged.

Rei sighed and looked at Makoto and Haruka who were walking ahead of them.

“It’s fine if the two of you wanna go swim,” Makoto told them. “We’ll just see you around.” All four of them had been hanging out together during the entire festival so Makoto thought it would actually be a good idea to split up and explore in pairs instead of the usual group.

“If you say so, Mako-chan,” Nagisa said as he waved while dragging Rei along with him.

Makoto continued on walking with Haruka by his side. He was looking through the crowd for a certain someone who he needed to have a word with.

“It’s possible Rin isn’t gonna be here today,” Haruka said from about half a step behind Makoto.

“It’s still worth looking. You can’t say anything for sure unless you have proof,” Makoto answered.

They continued on walking and Makoto kept on looking for Rin, regardless of what Haruka had stated. He needed to find Rin and ask him about last weekend. But the further he looked, the more he came to believe that Haruka was actually right and that Rin wasn’t at the festival.

However, Haruka was proven wrong when Makoto thought he heard a voice closing in on them from behind while they were looking at t-shirts.

“…That expensive just because it’s the last day!” Rin practically yelled and Makoto and Haruka both turned their heads in his direction. They weren’t the only ones. Rin was drawing a lot of attention due to his irritation. He was walking with Sousuke who was trying to silently tell Rin that he was drawing a lot of attention but Rin seemed to ignore everything completely. “I mean, it’s not fair!” Rin yelled.

“Rin!” Makoto called as he stood up and waved at Rin to catch his attention.

This snapped Rin out of his irritation and he turned to face Haruka and Makoto. “Haru, Makoto,” he said blinking a couple of times.

“Rin, I need to talk to you for a second,” Makoto said, putting up a serious expression.

“About what?” Rin asked. He had a feeling that he knew what was coming but he had to ask in the hopes that his intuition was wrong.

“Somewhere more private,” Makoto said.

“Okay…” Rin said looking at Sousuke. “Could you wait here with Haru?” He didn’t want Sousuke to listen to whatever was coming.

“Actually, I just remember I have to be somewhere,” Sousuke lied. It wouldn’t turn into anything good if Sousuke and Haruka were left alone together, or rather, it wouldn’t matter because they would just ignore each other.

“Okay…” Rin mumbled.

“I’ll go with you,” Haruka said, not wanting to be left all alone. Even if he knew that both Makoto and Rin would come back he’d still rather come with them. Besides, chances were Rin would need his mental backup and he was also responsible for what had happened last weekend.

Makoto just nodded as an answer before leading the way a little outside the area where the festival would be held before he stopped and turned to look at Rin.

“Did you know that yesterday wasn’t the first time Haruka’s cast was messed up?” Makoto asked, getting straight to the point.

For a while Rin just looked down at his shoes. He didn’t want to tell the truth, knowing what the consequences would be. But if he lied, Makoto would know right away and that would leave him with even worse consequences. He looked up to meet Makoto’s green eyes. “Yeah, I knew,” he answered.

“How did it happen?” Makoto asked.

“Well, we’d both gone to bed on Friday night and when I woke up early Saturday morning, Haruka had gone missing. I found him in the pool and it turned out he’d been there for hours,” Rin said.

Makoto turned to look at Haruka. “Is that true, Haru?” he asked.

Haruka nodded.

“Why?”

“It’s the only way I could cope,” Haruka answered. He too looked down at his feet now.

Makoto nodded. He wouldn’t admit he hadn’t seen it coming. Though when Haruka had said he was fine and told Makoto that he could just go camping with his family for the weekend, Makoto had believed Haruka completely.

“Then why would you say you were fine?” Makoto asked.

Haruka looked up to meet Makoto’s eyes. “Because if I didn’t, you wouldn’t have gone camping with your family. I know that’s your way of coping and you needed it too,” he finished.

As much as Makoto wasn’t happy to admit it, Haruka was right. He couldn’t help but be glad that his friend would do that for him.

“Why would you keep it a secret?” Makoto now looked at both Rin and Haruka.

“I had a feeling you’d be angry if I told you,” Rin answered

“I just wanted Rin to say it,” Haruka explained himself.

Makoto understood those reasons too. “So, you didn’t know that Haruka told me that he’d found a way to clean the cast from Nagisa’s drawings?” Makoto asked Rin.

“What?” Rin asked surprised before looking at Haruka and then back at Makoto. “Did he seriously do that?”

Makoto and Haruka both nodded at that.

Rin stared at Haruka in disbelief. He knew it was easy to make Makoto believe in a story. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard of that. However, that Haruka would tell Makoto a direct lie for the sake of another friend was something Rin had never imagined he could do.

“Well, I’m out of questions,” Makoto said smiling at both Rin and Haruka. “Though the next time this happens, you should just tell me.” He looked at Rin.

Rin nodded. He’d learned his lesson. It was better to tell someone if you’d made a mistake than walk around always being afraid they’d find out. And when Rin looked at Haru, he could tell that Haruka had learned that lesson too.

“Well, should we go back?” Makoto asked.

Rin and Haruka nodded and all three of them walked back to the festival to get back to what they’d been doing before. Rin went to look for Sousuke.

“You could stay with us until you find him?” Makoto offered.

“Nah, I think I know where I’ll find him,” Rin answered. “Thanks anyway, I’ll see you around.” He left Haruka and Makoto in the middle of the crowd with those words.

Haruka and Makoto then continued to walk around at the festival, but they didn’t find much interesting to do. Rin was right. They had increased the prizes on everything because it was the last day of the Ocean Festival.

When it was time for the festival to close, Makoto and Haruka went to the beach in search for Nagisa and Rei. They were easy to find. Rei was sitting in the sand while Nagisa was sitting in the water.

“Nagisa, Rei!” Makoto waved at the two and both looked up at the seniors.

“Mako-chan! Haru-chan!” Nagisa called, getting out of the water to get up to them.

“Nagisa-kun!” Rei called, getting up as well. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around Nagisa’s shoulders.

“Thanks, Rei-chan,” Nagisa smiled at Rei before sneezing.

“You spend too much time in the water, Nagisa-kun,” Rei sighed, causing Makoto to laugh and Haruka to smile. Nagisa smiled too while assuring Rei there was no need to worry before the group headed home.


	16. Tuesday - September 9th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You don't have to read the note below. I'm just feeling a little down and stressed and need to write it down to clear my head. I'm sorry to bother.

A loud sneeze was ringing through the hallways at Iwatobi high, making it easy for Haruka and Makoto to find Rei and Nagisa. The blonde boy’s nose was slightly red and he looked a bit paler than usual. He had looked almost the same the day before, but today it was worse.

“Nagisa,” Makoto asked concerned as he and Haruka reached the 2nd years. “Are you sure you’re not sick?” he asked.

“I’m fine, Mako-chan,” Nagisa said before cleaning his nose for the 100th time that day.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Gou said. “He has been like that ever since morning.” She glared at Nagisa. “Don’t try to lie or anything.”

“I’m not lying,” Nagisa said. “I’m fi-“ He was interrupted by another sneeze. “Almost…”

“You remind me a lot of Haruka at that point…” Makoto mumbled, eyeing the black haired boy. He wondered if Haruka had somehow wiped off on Nagisa.

“It’s just a cold, Mako-chan,” Nagisa smiled before heading off to the roof where they’d have their lunch. Gou wanted to inspect it again to see if they had learned something from the last time she did this.

The others followed the short boy, all concerned about him and the cold he seemed to have caught.

The inspection went as predicted. Makoto and Rei had both improved and both got a score of over 70% while Nagisa and Haruka hadn’t changed a bit. But everyone had seen that coming from a mile away. It would take a lot to get Nagisa to drop the “Rock” and “Hopping” bread and it would take even more to make Haruka add more to his lunch than mackerel.

“You’re hopeless,” Gou breathed as she stared at the unhealthy bread and the fish.

“Well, I guess you can’t expect anything else from Nagisa and Haru,” Makoto commented with a smile.

“In what ways can I improve?” Rei wanted to know and Gou went on with a long description of what Rei could do better to make his lunch healthier. Makoto listened to Gou’s words too, while Haruka and Nagisa just started eating their lunch, not really caring for what the girl was saying.

* * *

 

After the lunch break, the 2nd years went to have their afternoon classes. The first up would be the math class. Every now and then Rei would look over his shoulder to notice that Nagisa was just sitting there and not really paying any attention to what their teacher was saying. Then again, math wasn’t exactly Nagisa’s best subject so Rei understood this, but he still worried about the blonde boy.

When math finished they had a small break until the history class would start and Rei went to Nagisa’s table to see how he was doing. Nagisa was by then lying on the table, his cheeks and nose were red while the rest of him was pale. His eyes were half closed.

“Nagisa-kun?” Rei asked concerned.

Nagisa snapped out of it and opened his eyes. “Rei-chan!” he cried smiling at the boy. “I’m fine, I was just sleepy. You know how I hate math.”

“You’re not so good at it either, Nagisa-kun,” Rei said. “But you look pale to me.”

“I’m fine,” the boy said before sneezing once more. Rei placed a hand under Nagisa’s bangs.

“You seem warm, Nagisa-kun…” he mumbled.

Nagisa put on a cheerful smile. “I’m fine, Rei-chan,” he repeated and Rei had no other choice but to back off, seeing as their history teacher had just entered the classroom. Hopefully Nagisa’s behavior in class would change. History was his best subject and he usually paid attention to the classes, plus, their teacher was nice and understanding which only made Nagisa’s results better.

Their class started and Rei did his best to pay attention, though Nagisa’s wellbeing was bothering him a lot more than he’d expected. Half way through the lesson, Rei decided to turn his head to look at Nagisa for just a second and see if he was alright. He was shocked to realize that Nagisa had fallen asleep with his head resting on his arms.

“Hazuki-kun?” Their teacher called, picking just that moment to try and make contact with Nagisa. However, the boy didn’t respond. “Hazuki-kun?” The teacher went down to Nagisa’s desk and started shaking the boy gently. “Wake up, Hazuki-kun,” he demanded.

The entire class followed as this unusual incident played out right in front of them.

Nagisa blinked and sat up. “What…?” he mumbled sleepily.

“You fell asleep, Hazuki-kun,” the history teacher said. He quickly took a look at Nagisa’s face, his eyes and then felt his forehead.

“I’m fine…” Nagisa grabbed a tissue and cleaned his nose.

“I suggest you go home, Hazuki-kun,” the teacher said. “Not only for your own sake, but your classmates’ as well. You’ll infect them if you stay. I’d say you’ve come down with a nasty cold and you should stay home until you’ve gotten better,” he said. “You’re dismissed for today, Hazuki-kun. Now go on home.”

Nagisa was too tired and too sick to bother arguing with their teacher. He just went on and packed up his stuff before leaving class. Rei’s gaze followed him all the way until he closed the door behind him.

* * *

 

“I wonder if Nagisa will be swimming with us today,” Makoto said as he and Haruka exited their classroom to go to the pool.

Haruka shrugged. “He insists that he is fine,” he just stated and Makoto nodded. That was true.

When the two third years made it to the pool they noticed both Rei and Gou were already there, but there was no sight of Nagisa anywhere.

“Where’s Nagisa?” Makoto asked as he reached the others. He had already changed, so had Rei.

“Nagisa-kun was dismissed from History class,” Rei said. “They say he has come down with a nasty cold.”

Makoto’s face was filled with concern. “We should go see him,” he said. “To see how he is doing.”

Rei nodded. “We can do it tomorrow. I think Nagisa-kun needs rest,” he answered.

Makoto nodded. “I guess that’s a good idea,” he agreed.

They ended swimming club early that day. It was pretty boring just with Rei and Makoto being able to swim. All of them found that something important was missing. Nagisa’s cheerful self should’ve been there with them and even Haruka could sense this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm stressed out. I have two major assignments this week, one due to Thursday and another due to Friday. I have started on the one due to Friday, but I'm not done yet. I have yet to start on the one due to Thursday and that's a huge one. Sure, it's English, and I'm pretty good at that, but it's an analysis and analyzing is one of the few things I can't do at all.   
> This leads to the biggest issue and the thing that stresses me out the most. I have this huge assignment which I got two days off from school to write. I have to hand it in by tomorrow morning and I really can't figure it out. I have to collect information and use specific analysis to get the things out I want, but I have to gather my own material, which I suck at too. I feel like I'm in way too deep. I don't know how to do it and I know I'm going to fail to do this assignment right.   
> In addition, I'm malso wondering if I picked the right education for myself (an academic one) because I don't feel like I have the right qualities for this. The thing is, I'm more than half way through, nearing the end of my 2nd of 3 years. And I don't know what else to do. It's stupid to just quit now when I'm less than a year away from finishing, and they say the 3rd year is going to be less tough than the 2nd year. But right now I feel like I'm under pressure. Also because exams are approaching and the only exams I can get are in subjects I'm bad in. 
> 
> I guess this is enough sad story from me. If you read this, thank you. If you didn't, it doesn't matter. I'm sorry to bother with this. It is not appropriate anyways. I just had to get it out somehow. It helps a bit. It also helps publishing since it takes my mind off things a bit.   
> I'm feeling better now.   
> I'll see you all next time. Thank you for all the support of my work and thank you for reading it. 
> 
> Jackie


	17. Thursday - September 11th

“WHAT!” Gou yelled in disbelief. “Nagisa-kun is missing again today?” she looked at Rei with wide eyes as the swimmer nodded.

“His fever seems to be getting worse each passing day,” Rei answered.

“Has Nagisa ever been this sick before?” Makoto asked, looking at Haruka, clearly expecting an answer.

Haruka spoke in his usual, emotionless voice. “How should I know?”

Makoto nodded at this. Of course Haruka won’t know if Nagisa had ever been this sick before. Even though they were the two who had known him for the longest time, they had only seen him at the swim club and until he joined their relay team, they hadn’t really spoken to him often.

“I think we should pay him a visit,” Makoto said. “He’d do the same for us if we were sick,” he continued.

Rei nodded in response. He’d visited Nagisa the day before, but it wouldn’t hurt to visit him again today. He didn’t seem to enjoy being stuck at home.

It was quickly decided that they would cancel practice today to go and visit Nagisa instead.

* * *

 

School ended and Rei, Haruka and Makoto met outside the building to go visit Nagisa together. They didn’t say much on the way there. There wasn’t really much to say. Makoto asked Rei about how Nagisa had been the other day and if he had any idea what was wrong with him.

“His mother said it was a really bad cold or even an influenza,” Rei answered to this and Makoto nodded. He felt really bad for the shorter boy.

It turned out none of Nagisa’s family was even home and the door was unlocked.

“Maybe he’s feeling better?” Makoto asked as Rei opened the unlocked door.

Haruka just send his taller friend a look that couldn’t be mistaken as anything other than ‘I don’t think so’.

“Nagisa-kun?” Rei called and led the way through the house to Nagisa’s room. The boy was lying in bed with at least two blankets covering his body. Next to him was an empty cup of tea and a lot of tissues. When Makoto looked at Nagisa’s eyes, he could tell they were only half open and he looked even worse than he did two days ago.

“Rei-chan? Mako-chan? Haru-chan?” Nagisa looked at each of them with those half closed eyes.

“Nagisa.” Makoto looked at him worriedly. “How are you?”

Nagisa said nothing for a while. He just looked to his empty cup. “bad…” He finally said.

Rei checked Nagisa’s temperature. “Why are you all alone?” He asked.

“Mom needed to go work and my sister needed to pick up something… She left some time ago…” Nagisa mumbled. “I feel warm…” he then said.

Nagisa was really sweaty. Makoto – who had heard that should be a good sign of recovery – went and took a few of the blankets away. It turned out there were at least ten of them. Rei went to find a wet cloth to put on Nagisa’s forehead while Haruka took the cup of tea and went to prepare some more, on Nagisa’s request.

Nagisa wanted to hear how everything was and after they had all finished making the boy comfortable, they all sat around him while Makoto talked. He talked about everything that had happened since Nagisa went home from school Tuesday afternoon. What he and Haruka had been doing and how the swim club went. Nagisa ended up falling asleep to the sound of Makoto’s voice.

A while later Makoto stopped talking and shortly after that, Nagisa’s sister returned and the three boys left the house.

* * *

 

While riding the train home, Haruka wondered; when was the last time he’d ever been sick? He hardly ever caught a cold. This was except for the time last year when he went into the pool while the weather was still cold. He still never listened to Makoto’s warnings about that though. The cold hadn’t even been bad.

The only other time Haruka could recall being sick was back in 6th grade… How did it even feel to be so sick? That was a thing Haruka wasn’t able to recall. He remembered nothing but staying in his bed from the time in 6th grade and that didn’t really give him much of a clue.

When Makoto’s head fell to rest on Haruka’s shoulder, Haruka snapped out of his thoughts and looked at his green eyed friend. He had fallen asleep while Haruka had been lost in thoughts. This was unusual for Makoto. He would usually stay awake and Haruka got a feeling that Makoto was getting sick too.

Haruka decided to do nothing about it at the moment. There was no reason to. If Makoto needed sleep he had no problem allowing him to sleep. Though why did he have to sleep with his head on Haruka’s shoulder like that?

Only a few minutes later their stop was announced and Haruka looked at Makoto. Now was the time to wake him up.

“Makoto,” Haruka said, shaking the other’s body softly.

Makoto sat up and blinked. “Sorry,” he smiled.

“It’s our stop now,” Haruka just said while standing. Makoto got up as well and followed Haruka out of the train and all the way back to Haruka’s place. There was now only a week left until Haruka would get rid of the cast around his wrist.


	18. Friday - September 12th

Haruka woke up on Friday morning, noticing the sun was already shining clearly through the window. He usually never woke up this late. Of course he’d oversleep from time to time but it had never been this bad. If he slept for too long on a school day then Makoto would always be there to wake him up. But since he didn’t like having to rely on other people like that, Haruka usually didn’t oversleep.

But this morning was different. Looking at his watch, Haruka noticed that it was already way past when Makoto would usually wake him up. When he then looked to Makoto, it turned out he was still asleep.

“Makoto,” Haruka said as he sat up. He leaned forward and placed a hand on Makoto’s shoulder, shaking him lightly.

“Haru…?” Makoto mumbled, still half asleep.

“We’ll be late,” Was all Haruka said. It was enough though. Makoto’s eyes opened widely and he sat up straight.

“We overslept!” He almost yelled before hurrying out of bed to get dressed. Haruka got out of bed and got dressed as well. No soaking in the bathtub for today…

Makoto was in a hurry because he didn’t usually oversleep and Haruka just went along with it. The problem was that Makoto was so hasty he almost forgot about breakfast, and Haruka only managed to grab a bit of food before hurrying out the door after Makoto.

It wasn’t really like Haruka cared much about being late for school or anything. But he knew that if he didn’t catch up to Makoto, the other would stop until he did.

The two only just made it before class started and sat down in their seats. Makoto’s breathing was heavy like it was after he’d been swimming while Haruka’s breathing was only a little heavier than what was usual for him.

* * *

 

The classes went on like they usually did, the teacher speaking and the class taking notes. As they did so Haruka got a feeling that something wasn’t right, something he was supposed to know about, but didn’t. It was slightly irritating.

Lunch break came and Makoto and Haruka met up with Rei and Gou again. They ate in silence for a while until Makoto decided to break it.

“Rei, how’s Nagisa doing?” Makoto looked at Rei who just then got a smile on his face.

“His sister says he’s doing better today,” Rei said. “His fever has gone down a bit.”

Makoto smiled happily. “That’s good news,” he said.

They fell silent once again. There wasn’t really anything to say and the conversation about Nagisa wasn’t really going anywhere.

Makoto finished up his lunch and put the box aside before resting his head in one hand. Haruka watched him carefully through the corner of his eye as he finished his own lunch as well. Makoto seemed to be tired and was it just Haruka or…

“Are you okay, Makoto-senpai?” Gou asked, causing everyone to snap out of what they were thinking and look at Makoto.

“Who, me?” Makoto asked, “I’m fine. Why?” he looked questioning at Gou.

“You look a little paler than usual,” Gou explained before shaking her head. “No, it’s just me, never mind.” She smiled kindly and looked away. Rei did so too, but Haruka kept on looking at Makoto.

It surprised him that Gou was right. Looking closer at Makoto, he could see that he did look a bit paler than usual. It kinda made sense now, also why Makoto had overslept this morning and all.

“Makoto.” Haruka met his best friend’s eyes. He sent him a worried look to which he answered with a look that was supposed to assure Haruka that he was fine. However, Haruka just shrugged at this. He didn’t believe it.

None of the two noticed as Rei and Gou exchanged looks while wondering why it was always like that with Makoto, Haruka and Nagisa. It was the 3rd time within a month that one of them had denied that there was something wrong with them, even though it was obvious to everyone.

* * *

 

Haruka kept an eye on Makoto for the rest of the day until classes were over. The other seemed like he was fine but Haruka noticed more than one sign that he wasn’t feeling well.

They were heading towards the pool when Makoto suddenly got a coughing fit. He leaned against the wall while trying to catch his breath through it. Haruka stood still next to him.

“I’ll walk you home,” Haruka just said when Makoto finally stopped coughing.

“Thanks, Haru,” Makoto just said.

They walked out of the building together and Haruka went to the pool to tell Gou that Makoto wouldn’t be there. This caused the girl to cancel. There was no point in practicing if it was just Rei who could swim, at least not if you asked Rei and Gou.

Haruka then walked back to Makoto and they walked home together. They walked to Makoto’s home and luckily Makoto’s mother could tell that something was wrong right away.

“You just go on home, Haru,” she said kindly. “It would be bad if you got infected as well.”

Haruka just nodded. Then he turned around and walked home slowly.

The air was getting cold as he walked up the stairs. He stopped about half way to his home to look at his surroundings. The sun was nearing the horizon but there was still some time until it would get dark. Haruka wondered what he should do to make the rest of the day pass. Since Makoto helped him with most chores

Haruka looked at his phone. He would also have the weekend off and without Makoto around and without being permitted to swim or anything, what was he supposed to do?

He opened his text messages. Maybe he had an idea, but it was far from certain that it would work out.

 

_Haruka:_

_You got some time this weekend?_

It didn’t take long before he received an answer.

 

_Rin:_

_Sorry. Booked the weekend for intense training_

Haruka sighed as he read that message. His idea would be nothing at all. But maybe it was healthy for him to actually be alone for some time. Ever since he broke his wrist he hadn’t spent a single moment alone, unless he’d got to use the toilet. It would’ve just been weird if Makoto had followed him out there…

Slowly turning on his heel, Haruka continued on his way up the stairs to his home. When he thought about it, maybe it wasn’t so bad to have his house to himself for some time again. 


	19. Monday - September 15th

Haruka went to school by himself this morning. He’d spend all weekend on his own and it had actually been nice. It wasn’t like he didn’t like having Makoto around so much, it was just a nice change considering he hadn’t had much time alone since he broke his wrist.

Though, being sick didn’t prevent the worried Makoto from keeping tabs on Haruka as much as possible. He would send Haruka texts every day to make sure he kept his wrist dry at all times.

This morning was no different. As Haruka left his house he received a text from Makoto yet again.

 

_Makoto:_

_Haru, your wrist still dry?_

This was common and Haruka just sighed before texting his short answer.

 

_Haru:_

_Yes._

Haruka looked at the time on his display. It was earlier than it had been the other days during the weekend that Makoto texted him.

As if on cue, another message came, commenting on Haruka’s exact thoughts as if Makoto had been there himself to read the questions in his eyes.

 

_Makoto:_

_I’m doing better. I think I’ll be able to come back to school tomorrow. Nagisa should be back today already._

Haruka wondered how Makoto knew that Nagisa was coming back to school, but since it wasn’t important, he didn’t ask. Besides he would figure out the answer one way or another anyways. There was about a 99% chance that the short boy had texted Makoto about it though.

It was silent as Haruka walked all the way to the school and he spend most of the day by himself until lunch when a bubbly Nagisa ran up to him with a cheerful expression on his face.

“Haru-chan!” He called. “Hurry!” He waved and led Haruka to follow him.

 _Is he ever gonna drop the –chan?_ Haruka questioned himself while doing so.

Nagisa led him to the roof where Rei and Gou were already waiting. Haruka got slightly irritated. Why did Nagisa feel like he had to go get him up here when he was already planning on going in the first place? It seemed stupid to Haruka.

“How is Makoto-senpai?” Rei asked concerned as Haruka sat down between him and Nagisa.

“He says he’ll be back tomorrow,” Haruka answered while starting to eat his mackerel.

“That’s good news!” Nagisa smiled. “Then we’ll all be back at full strength.”

Rei smiled and nodded. “Looks like it, Nagisa-kun,” he said.

Haruka said nothing. He just continued on eating. There was nothing to say anyways so why bother? Besides, it was impossible to get into the conversation that Rei and Nagisa were having.

“Haruka-senpai?” Gou asked. “Onii-chan says you texted him last Friday.”

Haruka shrugged. “I did,” Was the answer.

“If you were lonely you should’ve just said so,” Gou said, smiling kindly.

“It’s fine,” Haruka said. “It was just unusual not having anyone around.”

Gou nodded. “That’s right. Makoto-senpai has been around you ever since your wrist broke, right?” She eyed the cast that was still around Haruka’s wrist for a little while longer. “When is it taken off anyway?” she asked.

“The 18th,” Haruka answered.

“Wow Haru-chan, that’s soon!” Nagisa said, finally dropping the conversation with Rei that had just gotten weirder and weirder for each passing second.

“It is,” Rei smiled.

“We should celebrate that he has lasted a month without water,” Nagisa cheered.

“It hasn’t been entirely without water,” Rei said. “Forgot last weekend when he was swimming Free during the Ocean Festival?”

“Or the weekend before then, when he swum for hours in the Samezuka-pool?” Gou asked while smiling.

“How do you…?” Haruka started off.

“I overheard your conversation at the festival with Onii-chan and Makoto-senpai,” she answered.

Haruka nodded at that. Rei and Nagisa looked from Haruka to Gou and back.

“What happened then?” Rei asked.

“Onii-chan woke up the morning after you dropped Haruka-senpai off and found him swimming in the pool. He then took Haruka-senpai to the hospital and had the cast fixed.” She smiled at this point while Haruka’s face remained expressionless.

“What did Mako-chan say?” Nagisa asked.

“From what I heard, Makoto-senpai didn’t find out until the festival when Haruka-senpai was swimming and afterwards taken to the hospital to get the cast replaced,” Gou said.

“How did you keep that secret, Haru-chan?” Nagisa said.

Haruka looked away. He wasn’t ashamed of much, but right now, the fact that he’d lied to Makoto made him feel pretty bad. “I told him I’d found a way to clean the cast,” he said.

“And Makoto-senpai believed it?” Rei asked in disbelief.

Haruka nodded while Nagisa cheered:

“That’s Mako-chan.” He was then silent for a second. “But we should still hold a party,” he said.

“We talked about a pool-party once,” Rei reminded him, causing Haruka’s head to snap up in his direction.

“Yeah!” Nagisa smiled.

“Guys no!” Gou said. The others looked at her as she got a secretive expression on her face. “No pool-party,” she said.

“Why not, Gou-chan?” Nagisa whined.

“Because I say so,” was Gou’s final saying in the matter before all of them had to return to class.

* * *

 

As school ended, Haruka received a text from Nagisa.

 

_Nagisa:_

_This is from Gou-chan to you Haru-chan_

_Don’t come to practice today. You can visit Makoto-senpai and bring him a gift from all of us. You could buy him some cookies if you want. Gou_

Haruka just nodded. He didn’t answer and there was no need. All he had to do was follow the instructions. He hadn’t planned on visiting Makoto, but since he was told to do so, he thought he might as well.


	20. Tuesday - September 16th

On this morning while sitting in the bathtub Haruka heard some familiar sounds coming from around his house. The first one was a knocking on the door. Then a voice saying they were coming in, then he heard footsteps and calling and then finally a knock on the bathroom door.

“There you are, Haru,” Makoto said as he entered the bathroom. He was looking much better today. He walked up to Haruka and reached out his hand. “I find you like this a lot,” he smiled.

Haruka just nodded as he let Makoto pull him to a standing position and got out of the bathtub. He was glad to see Makoto was doing well, though he’d never say it.

Mackerel was quickly made and eaten and before long, Haruka and Makoto were on their way to school in a comfortable silence.

The classes went by in a slow pace. Haruka only wanted the day to end as tomorrow could come and end and the following day could come and he could get rid of the cast.

When lunch break finally came, signaling that half the day had passed, Haruka just followed Makoto to the roof where Nagisa and Gou were waiting. Gou was apparently on the phone because as soon as they arrived she started speaking quickly.

“We’ll discuss it later,” she said. “He’s here, I’ve got to go.” Then she hung up and put the device aside.

“Hey Nagisa, Gou. Where’s Rei?” Makoto asked as he and Haruka sat down with the two mentioned.

Nagisa looked up. “Rei-chan’s sick,” he said with a saddened look.

“I hope I didn’t infect him…” Makoto mumbled. “What I came down with was pretty bad…”

“Was that the same as me?” Nagisa asked curiously. He had had no contact with Makoto at all from the day when he and Haruka had come to visit, until this lunch break.

“I think so…” Makoto said. “At least it seemed that way.”

“Then I feel bad for Rei-chan too,” Nagisa answered. “It’s no fun.”

Haruka would bet all the mackerel in his freezer that it wasn’t fun. He was just glad he didn’t show any signs of coming down with anything as well.

“Who were you on the phone with?” Makoto asked Gou.

Gou looked awkwardly at Makoto before answering. “Just an old friend I ran into in town last weekend…” She then pulled out her phone. “I think she’s texting me…” She started typing.

Moments later Makoto looked at his phone and nodded in silence. “Haru, could we have sushi tonight for dinner?” he asked.

Haruka shrugged. “It takes time preparing…” he said.

“You can just go on and skip practice. It’s not like you’re participating in anything so it should be fine,” Makoto said. “I was thinking that we could also invite my family over, just for fun.”

Haruka shrugged again. “I’m not that good at making sushi,” he said.

“Then tomorrow night?” Makoto asked. “Then you decide what we’ll have.”

Haruka nodded at this. It wasn’t like he minded.

“Good,” Makoto smiled and this was when Haruka got suspicious. Who had Gou been on the phone with and what was so important that he would need to leave before practice just for the sake of dinner? Why did Makoto’s family even had to visit him for dinner when they’d never been at his place before? The only one who had was Makoto himself.

Haruka never had his questions answered, probably because he never asked. Somehow he knew that he would know the answer in time for whatever they were planning.

After school, Haruka went shopping alone while Makoto went to practice. He thought that maybe it was also good that they could practice without him on the sidelines. It would cause Makoto much less worry and they could be in the water all three in the same time without having to think about Haruka getting into the pool. Oh wait, that’s’ right… Rei wasn’t there.

Haruka walked home and started preparing the sushi as well as possible. He really wasn’t good at it so he didn’t make it often.

A knock on the door was heard as Haruka nearly finished making the sushi. He didn’t answer. There was no reason to. He for one, didn’t want to be interrupted, two if it was Makoto, he’d just let himself in within a few seconds.

It turned out it was the latter. Makoto’s voice was heard moments later as he entered Haruka’s house.

“I’m coming in, Haru!” he called.

Haruka said nothing to this as Makoto entered the kitchen. He also did nothing when Makoto took out plates and prepared to lay the table. He would’ve needed that anyway. Makoto knew. That was why he did it.

“What’s with you all?” Haruka asked, not directly to Makoto but there was no one else in the house.

“What do you mean?” Makoto asked as he got back after laying the table. Haruka turned then and placed two plates of sushi in Makoto’s hands that he couldn’t carry on his own with only one hand.

“Nothing…” Haruka mumbled. He hadn’t got the information he wanted, but at least, now he knew that they were hiding whatever it was from him. That meant that he were to pretend nothing was going on around him.

This was the reason why Haruka didn’t like surprises very much. He would always have to act because people were just that bad at hiding it.


	21. Thursday - September 18th

Today was the day. Today was the day that Haruka had been longing for, ever since he got his wrist wrapped up in that stupid cast. Today was the day when he would finally get rid of it for good and would never get to see it again. For the first time in forever he was really looking forward to something so much that he had almost no patience left.

Makoto noticed this as soon as the both of them woke up. Haruka finished everything much quicker than usual and there was something in his eyes that made Makoto understand this was going to be special. He hated that he had to break the excitement for Haruka.

“Haru… We aren’t going to the hospital right away…” Makoto started as Haruka was making mackerel. “We’re gonna have to wait until school is over.”

Haruka’s blue eyes had a sad look to them when they met Makoto’s green ones. He couldn’t believe it. More waiting!

“I’m sorry…” Makoto said.

“I guess it can’t be helped,” Haruka just said as he turned back to his food. None of them said a word after this, but the mood had gotten much heavier after this little conversation.

* * *

 

Haruka could barely even pay any attention to class. He was thinking about how nice it would feel to get the cast off all the way and that made it next to impossible to focus on what their teachers were talking about.

Lunch break came and Haruka followed right behind Makoto all the way to the spot where they usually met with Nagisa, Rei and Gou. They were already there waiting for them.

“Is it off yet?” Gou asked enthusiastically as she met Haruka’s eyes.

Haruka only exchanged a quick look with Makoto before sitting down. He didn’t want to answer the question and Makoto could do it as well.

“He won’t get it off until this afternoon,” Makoto answered.

Somehow Haruka thought that Gou and the others looked relieved to hear those news. He didn’t understand why, but he got a clue it had something to do with whatever they were hiding.

“How did it go last night?” Rei asked for how dinner had went with the rest of Makoto’s family.

“It went fine,” Makoto answered. “Though we ended up eating at my place anyway since Ren and Ran were on a fieldtrip yesterday and came home late.”

“I see,” Nagisa smiled, “fieldtrips makes everyone tired.”

“When was the last time you were on one Nagisa-kun?” Rei asked.

Nagisa thought about that for a bit. “Back at the beginning of 5th grade I think,” he answered.

They continued the discussion of fieldtrips the rest of the lunch break and then went back to their afternoon classes that went the same way for Haruka as the morning classes had.

* * *

 

When the classes finished, Haruka struggled to hide exactly how much he looked forward to having the cast taken off. It went well too. The only one who saw right through him was Makoto as usual. But what else would you expect from someone who you’ve known as long as you can remember?

Makoto went with Haruka to the hospital. It was never something they agreed on, it was just considered natural since Makoto had been by Haruka’s side through so much of it.

There was one who needed to get in before them and therefore Haruka and Makoto had to sit and wait for a while before the doctor was ready for them. Haruka thought the 20 minutes had lasted half a year when the door finally opened and the doctor who’d put on the cast, called out into the room:

“Nanase Haruka?”

Haruka stood and quickly walked up to the doctor. Makoto struggled a bit to keep up with him at this point and the doctor smiled as he let the both of them into the room. He signaled to both boys to take a seat and sat down in another chair behind a desk. He looked at a computer screen.

“It was a broken wrist wasn’t it?” he looked up at Haruka who nodded. “You got the cast on August 18th and were to keep it on for a month,” The doctor continued and Haruka nodded to this as well. “You’ve had it replaced twice during this month because you got it wet?” This was once again a question and Haruka nodded again to confirm that it was true.

“Does that matter?” Makoto asked.

“We’ll see,” the doctor answered before meeting Haruka’s eyes. “Here’s what we’ll do, Nanase-kun. I’ll take off the cast and then we’ll scan your wrist to see exactly how the bone is doing. If it has healed completely, you can leave. If it hasn’t, you’ll have to get another cast and we’ll discuss for how long you’ll have to keep it on,” the doctor explained this before he stood up.

It didn’t take long to get the cast off. The scanning was a much different story though. Haruka and Makoto sat and waited anxiously as the doctor collected the results.

“I really hope it has healed,” Makoto said.

Haruka just nodded. _Me too,_ he thought.

The doctor just then returned. Makoto and Haruka both looked at his face, trying to read the result from his expression. However, his face was as expressionless as Haruka’s on a regular day, so none of them got any clues from that.

“What’s the result?” Makoto finally broke the silence in the room.

The doctor couldn’t keep it in any longer and his face broke into a kind smile as he looked at the two. “Nanase-kun, your wrist has healed nicely. You won’t need to come back here because of it,” He said.

Makoto’s face too broke into a smile while only the corner of Haruka’s lips curled up a tiny bit. His eyes were shining with joy though.

“However,” the doctor continued causing both smiles to fade. “Your wrist is weak as a result of it not being able to do anything for so long, so the rule about straining it still applies. If you feel any pain in it, you will know it’s a sign for you to rest, be aware of that for the next month or so. There is a risk that the bone can break again if you strain it so I suggest you listen.”

Haruka nodded. He’d understood. He wouldn’t want to break his wrist again for anything.

“Is that all?” Makoto asked.

The doctor nodded. “Yes,” he answered. “You can go now.”

Both boys stood and walked towards the door at this point. Makoto thanked the doctor and Haruka nodded to show his gratitude as well.

“Be careful out there,” the doctor told them as the door shut behind the boys.

As they left the hospital, Haruka felt freer than ever before. He felt like he could do anything right now and he was light with happiness. It wasn’t noticeable in the way he was walking or the expression on his face. But Makoto could sense it, and on his face it was visible. He was so happy for Haruka that things had gone so well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cast is off! YAY! (haha)  
> So, just because I'm bored I feel like sharing something with you. The other day I came across a video about weird animal breedings. (Yeah, I check out some weird stuff) So, among Lionxtiger, Camelxlama and sheepxgoat, they also had an ocean-related pair. a dolphin and a killer whale. Although I'd rather see the dolphin with a shark any day, I still found it pretty interesting.   
> Anyways, even if the dolphin has had the cast taken off, you should still stick around for the reunion with his beloved pool.   
> Thanks for reading this story until now. I'm very happy about it. 
> 
> Jackie


	22. Friday - September 19th

_Why is everyone acting so strange?_ Haruka asked himself as he followed Makoto down the hallway towards their classroom after one of the strangest lunch breaks he had had in a while.

It wasn’t like anything special had happened. It was actually the opposite. Nothing special had happened. You would think that Nagisa would be more cheerful than usual or that Rei would say or do something but none of them said anything. The only one who spoke was Makoto and all he did was create awkward conversations while the two 2nd years exchanged looks from time to time. Gou was acting strange too. She participated in Makoto’s awkward conversations at first, but then her phone went off and after seeing the caller ID she ran off and didn’t come back.

“Makoto, what’s with everyone today?” Haruka asked the taller boy in front of him as they entered the classroom.

“What’s with who today?” Makoto was obviously snapped out of his own thoughts. Or was that just an act? Somehow Haruka couldn’t tell.

Haruka shook his head. He didn’t want to repeat himself or explain it. Either Makoto would figure it out or it was a secret that Haruka couldn’t know about yet. He hoped it was the former.

“Haru?” Makoto asked. “You are coming for practice today aren’t you?”

Haruka nodded.

Makoto smiled. He then sat down and waited for their teacher to come. Haruka did the same while wondering why Makoto had asked like that. It should be obvious that he would be there for practice.

Classes went on and the end of the school day neared. The last class they had today was art. This was when Haruka remembered that he had a project he had to turn in, now that his wrist was healed. So after class Haruka walked up to his teacher and handed in the picture.

“Your wrist is healed up, Nanase-kun?” the teacher asked as he looked at Haruka’s project.

Haruka just nodded at this. It should be obvious since he was turning back the project.

“That’s good to know,” the teacher smiled at Haruka. He was used to the silence. “We’ve all missed your unique style,” he said.

Haruka doubted that his style was as unique as the teacher wanted it to seem, but he said nothing. If the teacher wanted to believe he was that good, then what could he do to stop him?

Haruka received a text as he left the classroom. When opening it, he noticed it was from Makoto who hadn’t waited for him for a change.

 

_Makoto:_

_Where are you Haru? We’re waiting for you._

 

Haruka only took a second to ask himself why they would be waiting for him. Though he decided that he would find out if he went to the pool, so that was what he did.

Haruka thought it strange that there were nobody in the changing room when he entered. He changed quickly, paying no mind to all the extra clothes that were taking up extra space or the mess on the floor of shoes and bags that he didn’t know of.

It was also silent around Haruka while he made his way to the pool and he wondered why. Why would it be so silent? Makoto did tell him to come didn’t he? Well, if nobody were there, that meant Haruka would have the pool all to himself. That won’t be so bad.

Haruka only managed to take one step into the pool area when he was hit in the head with a towel so it blocked his vision.

“Hey Haru!” Rin called. “Why’d you keep us waiting?”

Haruka removed the towel as he could see again, and noticed that the members of Samezuka’s relay team were all there, along with Haruka’s own teammates, Gou, Sasabe and Amakata.

“What is this?” Haruka looked at Makoto letting his confusion show.

“Remember that Nagisa talked about a pool party?” Makoto asked and Haruka nodded to this. “Well, we decided that it was the best way to celebrate that you’d gotten the cast off and invited everyone we thought would be interested,” Makoto finished explaining while sending Haruka a warm smile. “We’ve planned it all week,” he finished.

The corner of Haruka’s lips curled up into a smile. His friends had managed to amaze him. He’d never expected they would do anything like this just for him, let alone even thought about it.

“So go on, Haru-chan!” Nagisa cheered. “Dive in!”

Haruka didn’t give anyone time to repeat those words. He ran to the pool, full speed, and jumped into the cool water. He surfaced and let himself float around in the water for a while, just feeling his body becoming one with the water. It was really relaxing. It felt even better than he remembered.

A splash was heard and before Haruka knew it, Rin was swimming by him. “Let’s race, Haru!” he said and Haruka – who had been lying on his back so far – turned in the water and started swimming after Rin, doing his best to catch up.

Little by little everyone else followed into the pool and soon there was no more room for racing as everyone started to splash water on each other.

Haruka had never felt so happy and free in this past month as he did right now, with his friends, reunited with his beloved water. The happiness he felt only grew stronger from the happiness of his friends around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're done with this story!  
> Thanks for reading and leaving kudos. I'm glad to know that someone liked my story despite it being the second time it's published. (That sound weird, hope you get it)  
> Anyways, that's all I have to say. There will be a mini-sequel to this story (Like a oneshot in the near future) so I hope you'll read that too.   
> That's all I have to say for now. Bye!
> 
> Jackie

**Author's Note:**

> This story is also published on ff.net. I did that almost a year ago. In fact I published the first chapter on April 22nd, so the anniversary is soon.   
> That aside. Unlike Free Parenting, which is the first multi-chaptered story I republished here, I am going to publish one chapter a day in this story, since it is a day-to-day thing. (one chapter covers an entire day). I will also make it fit as well as possible with publishing dates and timeline of the story, although I will skip the first few off-days in order to make it fit better into my own schedule later on.   
> I have nothing more to say for now. I hope you'll enjoy the story. 
> 
> Jackie


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